The video has been stabilized with Topaz Video AI, as it was shot. for the distance of around 2km from the boat.

It has been shot with a Sony A7R III and a Sony FE 600mm F4 + Teleconverter of 1.5x.

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Pyramiden is an abandoned soviet mining town in the Arctic, located in Svalbard island, and it represented a communist utopia for few decades, before it has been shut down in the 90s and completely abandoned.

After few years of completely abandonment, except a guardian living there, since the 2010s it has re-opened as an open air museum, and it is possible to sleep in a renovated hotel, one of the 2 buildings in the whole town with electricity and heating.

In 2024 Pyramiden Coal Mine has been re-opened after 26 years of being completely sealed off in the permafrost of the mountain, and I had the luck and the privilege to be among the first travellers to enter the mountain and the mine.

This has been one of the most incredible thing I’ve seen on planet earth, it looked like exploring a frozen world lost in time.

The entrance of the mins is at the footstep of the hill. and first there was one of the many “dressing” rooms.

dressing room with some old portraits

The access to the mine on the top of the hill is through this long corridor, used with motorized carts, and now just a long walk uphill, around 1 hour of steps.

inside pyramiden coal mine

inside pyramiden coal mine

For understanding better where is the mine and where is the town, you can see this aerial panorama of the town, where the hill with the mine is visible.

Pyramiden Aerial View of town and surroundings

view of pyramiden town from one of the many stops along the walk

In August the temperature outside was around 8 degrees, and once opened the sealed entrance to the mine, we were ready for at least a -10 degrees drop.

The only way for entering the mountain was for the worker to open an entrance with a chainsaw… through 3 meters of ice wall… something that is out of Game of Thrones! You can see here the entrance of the tunnel carved in the ice.

entering pyramiden coal mine through a wall of ice

last dressing room for the miners

This huge machinery was used to pull the carts with the miners.

machine to pull up carts

cart used by miners in pyramiden

inside pyramiden coal mine – tunnel

This is the control room used to manage the cart with the miners.

inside pyramiden coal mine control room

The incredible part is how workers left everything in their workstation, like if the mine was abandoned in a hurry, or suddenly. You could find cigarettes, notepads, VHS… frozen in time and in ice.

pyramiden abandoned stuff in the mine

inside pyramiden coal mine shifts manifesto

All around the corridors, colorful poster were indicating safety procedures, in the typical “soviet” art style.

inside pyramiden – security posters

inside pyramiden – security posters

inside pyramiden – security posters

Even if they were in coal mine, in the north pole, the attention to detail and to the workmanship was amazing. In this iron gate, you can recognize the natural “pyramid” on the top of the mountain, that gives the name to the town.

gate to the mine in pyramiden

gate to the mine in pyramiden

Everything inside was just rust and ice and darkness, absolute darkness.

Most of the corridors inside the mine are completely covered by ice crystals, and even some rooms were blocked by ice…

Pyramiden Coal mine – ice crystals

Pyramiden Coal mine – room filled with ice

Pyramiden Coal mine – ice crystals

Pyramiden Coal mine – ice crystals

Pyramiden Coal mine – iced corridor

Currently the tourism organization of Svalbard has broken any relationship with Pyramiden – due to the russian war in Ukraine – so to visit the abandoned town you have to book directly via the russian agency Grumant: I strongly recommend you to spend more nights in the settlement to truly experience the place without any tourists around, the hotel Pyramiden is a very good value for money and recently renovated.

You can see my reportage of Svalbard Wildlife at this link.

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An extra to the extra is enjoying the show from the warmth of a beautiful wooden cabin overlooking a norwegian fjord, and that is that I found at Aurora Fjord Cabins.

This timelapse is an  9 hour long exposure just in front of the cabin of this REMOTE place, at around 3 hours drive from Tromso.

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They are called “borghi del tufo”, since theu have been built from a volcanic stone called “tuff”. Pitigliano, in particular, is also called Little Jerusalem.

With small houses made of tuff and narrow alleys, it got its name from the jewish community that lived peacefully here in the past centuries.

The music is an homage to this Jewish heritage and it is “MIQEDEM – Psalm 23 (Live in Studio) תהילים כ״ג”, all rights to the rightful owners.

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It takes its name from Luni, a Roman town, perhaps pre-dated by an Etruscan settlement, which became the principal urban center on the northern Tuscan coast. Some contend that the name Luni refers to the moon. Others maintain, though little or no evidence exists, that the region was populated by those who worshiped the moon. As if to unite history and myth, the symbol of contemporary Lunigiana is a crescent moon held in the claw of a bear.

During the Middle Ages, there were 160 castles in Lunigiana, only thirty of which have reached our times in a good state of preservation. It was in these castles that Dante found respite during his stay in Lunigiana. The historical origins of these castles date back to times when the Lombards dominated most of the Pianura Padana and, seeking an outlet on the Ligurian/Tuscan coast, they found in the Cisa Pass and the Cerreto Pass, near the town of Fivizzano, the easiest ways to cross the Apennines.

Some scholars contend that with the growth of flourishing branches of the Malaspina dynasty, the inheritance of Lunigianese feudal territories by the ever contesting large and small branches of the family eventually brought about a diminution of individual holdings causing, in the end, the parceling of fiefdoms into increasingly smaller estates, all of which needed to be protected through the building of castles and other stone fortifications. Thus, through the centuries, many large and small (now picturesque) castles were built in Lunigiana, but at the cost of weakening the overall power of the family at each generation.

[source Wikipedia]

These are the castles that you can find in this video

1. Castle Malaspina of Fosdinovo

2. Fortress of Verrucola, Fivizzano

3. Castle of Bastia

4. Castle Malaspina of Tresana

5. Castle Malaspina of Mulazzo

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The impressive eruption of volcano Cumbre Vieja hit the island of La Palma at the end of 2021. For 3 months the lava river destroyed over 3000 buildings, 90 kilometers of roads and endless hectares of banana plantations, leaving more than 2000 people homeless.

The landscape changed completely by a 15-meters layer of lava rock, and by thousands of tons of volcanic ash, that covers the land with a grey blanket. The houses that survived are often cut off from the rest of the island, leaving them isolated in a black smoking desert. 

A breathtaking and terrible show of strength of Mother Nature.

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I’ve thought that the timelapse of the Aurora Borealis that I shot in Tromso in 2018 would remain unchallenged, but my last weekend in Iceland blessed me with a powerful solar storm that literally lighted up the sky. After landing saturday late afternoon, we head straight to Fagradalsfjall volcano for an hike to the top: the goal was setting up the camera on the top of the mountain, in order to have unobstructed view of the sky, no cars and no light pollution.

Northern Lights Fagradalsfjall Iceland Aurora Borealis

I could see green flashes already starting in the sky from 9pm and the show continued for most of the night. The peak was simply astonishing, with the whole sky completely crossed by green light, a spectacle out of the world. It is quite rare to witness northern lights so powerful!

Northern Lights Fagradalsfjall Iceland Aurora Borealis

The next evening we moved to a different location, near Kleifarvatn lake, where I found an abandoned building that could work quite well as a foreground for the northern lights. Again, northern lights came out around 9pm and lasted for several hours, even if less powerful than the nights before.

Abandoned Farmhouse near Grænavatn

Here you can see the timelapse shot in the two evenings, made with more than 500 photos, each of them can be printed on a wall size! Therefore the quality of the timelapse is a stunning 8K, best viewed on a television screen!

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Best wrecks for scuba diving in Madeira and Porto Santo, an underwater photography view!

Madeira is an island off the coast of North Africa, “close” to Azores and Canary Islands, and politically part of Portugal. It is a wonderful destination of nature lovers, great food and super spots for scuba diving! It has a twin island, Porto Santo, at 20minutes flight distance, which is basically a huge sandy beach island with emerald waters… a paradise!

I have taken my Padi Open Water license just one year ago, and I am trying to do as many dives as possible, trying different type of diving experience and, of course, underwater photography: Madeira holds a unique combination of breathtaking wreck dive sites accessible to open water divers, so below 18-20 meters. That is not common, because “usually”, ship wreck can be found at deeper depths, especially in the Mediterrean sea.

Here the 3 wreck dives I did in Madeira and Porto Santo, the twin island of Madeira.

As a diving center, I strongly recommend you Azul Diving: they are easygoing, superfriendly and well organized!

1. Corveta Afonso Cerqueira Wreck, Madeira

This 85 meters corvette ship was sunk to create an artificial reef in 2018, just in front of Cabo Girao. Since it is quite recent, there is not a huge marine life inside, but more around it, as you can see from the school of fish below.

The bottom is at 32 meters, so you can easily explore the inside of the wreck without going below 20 meters. Usually there is a mild current, but nothing troublesome. Visibility is great, and also temperature (in August).

Here the diving info from the SSI website.

You can start to spot the shape of the ship, and the cannons from the moment you start descending

A fireworm crawling around a dead urchin.

2. Madeirense wreck, Porto Santo

Madeirense is a very famous dive site in Porto Santo, listed among the top ones of the world. This is not a battle ship like the previous one, but a cargo ship that sank in 2000, 70 meters long, even it if looks way longer, probably because it is broken in half, making very fascinating.

It is way deeper than the other ones, from around 24meters to 35 meters, so as a open water you will be able to see it only from above. But to me, it is anyway a well worth experience!  Expect to see a lot of fishes and big groupers, since the area it is inside the natural park of Porto Santo.

Here’s the link for the dive info.

3. Corveta Pereira D’Eça Wreck, Porto Santo

This is definately my favorite wreck of the three: Corveta Pereira is the same class of Alfonso Cerqueira in Madeira, but it was sunk in 2016, so nature had more years to “conquer” it with a vibrant marine life.

The quantity of fishes I have seen in this dive was astonishing, and also with less current in comparison of the other 2 dives.

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Fireflies season is usually from the end of May to the end of June, just at the beginning of summer time. To find them, you need a very dark place and avoid pollution, both light, water and air ones.

All of this makes quite difficult to find them from my home (I live in very downtown Milan), and I have been wondering about since last year, when Covid made it definately impossible to move around!

Finally I got my chance this year where I joined a workshop organized by a local foundation, the same one that organizes the italian exhibitions of  Wildlife Photographer of the Year. The big plus of this, is being accompanied by renowed photographers and having access to special places for spotting fireflies.

During a week night, I travelled 3 hours to reach a private forest in the Apennines nearby Bologna, where I met a local photographer.

Shooting fireflies is quite tricky for 2 reasons:

1. you need very long exposures, from 30 seconds to 3-5 minutes, so you need to use a remote for setting up the bulb shutter mode
2. you need to set up your frame and your focus BEFORE it gets pitch black! once its dark every light will disturb the fireflies and possibily scare them away, so it is crucial to set up your scene and decide everything before the night comes. You can eventually turn on a light to change your frame (and refocus), but you will risk to not having so many fireflies after

As you can imagine, this takes a lot of practice, and it is quite difficult (at least it was for me) to get it all right the first time! I am quite satisfied with just 3 shots:

This was one of the first frames I did in the night, and to amplify the number of fireflies in the frame I merged multiple shots, and gave it a blue tint. It really reminds me of  Starry Night painting of Van Gogh.

I really like the movement of this shots, its dynamicity. The vertical frame I believe empowers the shape of the tree in the background, which, by the way, is out of focus, but it adds to the scene. I’ve tried the replicate the frame in the next one.

The tree here is fully focused, by maybe the photo lost its dynamicity. I’ve posted it anyway because I can’t decide myself!

Here’s the resuly instead of a very long exposure of 3 minutes, it looks almost like daytime!

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You could spend a whole month in this city and yet have things to see and discover.

The magnificence of monuments that have over two thousands years is something difficult to beat in the whole world.

Here some snapshots of the main ones I have visited during these days, just to give you a flavour of what a trip to Rome means.

Masterpieces of Michelangelo

“La Pietà” di Michelangelo, inside the St. Peter’s Basilica, in Vatican City.

“Moses” of Michelangelo, in Basilica di San Pietro in Vincoli

Trevi Fountain

Probably one of the most famous monuments in the world, a masterpiece that I recommend you visit in deep night, when you will be (almost) all alone. Made by artist Bernini.

Interior of Church Sant’Agnese in Agone

Church in Piazza Navona, in front of the Fountain of the Four Rivers.

Fountain of the Four Rivers.

By artist Bernini.

Ancient roman Art

Found in the Museo Nazionale Romano, Palazzo Altemps.

The Coliseum

No explanations are needed here!

Vittorio Emanuele II bridge with view on St Peter Cupola

Castle Sant’Angelo

A fortress build by popes.

View of St Peter from the keyhole in Malta Order Plaza

Vittoriano – Altare della Patria

St Peter Basilica – outside and inside

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