While in Italy last month I had the opportunity to recreate some of the photos I took in 2012 during my first time in Europe. Most of them look very similar to each other aside from the lighting and weather conditions but it’s still interesting to see how things were six years ago compared to today. Below are three pairs of photos with the 2012 version on the left, the 2018 version on the right, and a little bit of commentary below them.

Rome – Colosseum

 

The interior of the Colosseum hasn’t changed much in six years but you can see that there’s now scaffolding in the middle area, which I assume is part of some sort of restoration work. A new stone monument can also be seen on the left side of the photo. Hopefully at some point in the future that lower area in the middle of the Colosseum will become open to the public.

Florence – Top of the bell tower

 

These two photos probably aren’t that interesting for most people but they jumped out at me as a photographer because they show why it was so much easier to get photos on top of the Florence Cathedral’s bell tower in the past. While the photos are actually taken in different spots you can see that the safety fence is much denser in 2018 than it was in 2012. I looked at my 2015 photos from Florence and saw the safety fence then was the same as in 2012, so I can only assume that sometime between 2015 and 2018 someone dropped something sizable from on top of the bell tower and thanks to that idiot the rest of us now have trouble fitting our camera lenses through the fence.

Venice – The Lagoon

 

Of all the photos in today’s post these two have the most striking difference. The 2012 photo was taken at low tide while the 2018 photos was taken at high tide and together they show just how close the lower end of Venice near San Marco Square is coming to being enveloped by the lagoon. Most of the city is still high enough above the water to not be in danger of flooding yet but drastic action is going to be needed in the coming decades to save Venice from the rising waters.