Monday, May 04, 2009

Italian Courtyard


Italian Courtyard
Originally uploaded by linfrye
Daily Practice

I spent a number of hours yesterday exploring the 'virtual touring' allowed by Google Maps. Through their new 'street view' capacity, I was able to virtually SEE from the street level, what was on a particular street! From storefronts to house views -- WOWZA! I was jaw-dropped! I learned about this feature through this blog: http://virtualpaintout.blogspot.com/ ... and my gracious ... it absolutely inspired me! I was all over Italy!!! LOL

So, I found this photo in my 'stash' of reference images, and thought it might give me a practice run on some Italian scenes.

I noticed that some of the maps were years old (such as our Arboretum) -- still, that virtual tour was mind-blowing and amazing to me. Take a look yourself!! you may really be able to join me across Tuscany!

We're in our last workweek before vacation, so naturally enough, it will be filled with all those pesky 'musts' before leaving for a few weeks. I will probably be scarce, computer-wise ...

We're also expecting spots of showers throughout the week. We take two vans of guests to a large public garden tomorrow, so I'm hoping that the rains will hold off so all 30 of us can enjoy the splendid spring showing!

Have a great day! Let me know if you find some really neat addresses on those incredible maps!

6 comments:

Teri said...

So beautiful and an omen of things to come!! YAH!!

Joan said...

Lovely painting...great windows and foliage!!! I've used the virtual tours on Google Maps to check out the address where I grew up and the view of someone's new address. I never thought to use it for travel!!! Great idea!

Anonymous said...

Another gorgeous one Lin! Love the trees against the buildings. Also, I tried the Google maps for my address and found my street so you can see where we live!! It's amazing as we are on a tiny steet in a very modest section of town and a lot of others I googled in other parts of town (read: higher cost houses LOL) are not shown. Thanks so much for telling us about this. It's marvelous.
Hugs,
Lorraine

Patti G. said...

Another beautiful piece Lin dear.......just gearing up for your fun Italian Trip!!!!!!
Sending hugs your way!
Patti
xoxoxoxo

Linda said...

Don't you LOVE the street view on Google Earth! I "travel" to Spain all the time that way! :-)

Claire M said...

This is such a cool idea. I sure enjoyed your practice and real images from your trip. I'm having fun looking at them again.