Summer in Italy

Three totally different style of postcards from three different places of North Italy: souvenirs of a vacation. 

A commercial postcard of the Villa dei Cedri Thermal Park at Lake Garda.

A very fancy twinkling postcard from Savona, a town in Liguria region, off the coast of the Mediterranean Sea.

This one is my favourite: A vintage style postcard from Trasquera, a small town in Piedmont, right next to the Swiss border.

From: T. A.

Date: July 2012

Chicago

Clockwise from left to right: Chicago by night, Chicago Theatre, the skyline, the Buckingham Fountain, the skyline again, Sears Tower, the Navy Pier and the Cloud Gate sculpture

Everyone who watched the movie Chicago has an impression of the Windy City. Chicago is the third biggest city of the US. and the biggest city of Illinois.

A few words of the landmarkes shown in this postcard: at right the Sears Tower is the skyscraper which owned the title of the tallest building of the world from 1973 to 1998, it was surpassed by the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Now it is the second tallest building in the US.

In the middle: the Cloud Gate (2006) contemporary public sculpture at the center of the Millenium Park. It was designed by the Indian-British artist Anish Kapoor, known for his biomorph public sculptures all around the world. The bean form sculpture's surface was inspired by liquid mercury and it reflects the city's skyline.

From: T. A.

Date: July 2012

Mount Rushmore

The Mount Rushmore National Memorial is my personal favourite. I was saying many times that this or that place is unique or distinctive, but the Mount Rushmore truly is. 

This mountain sculpture was purposely designed to promote tourism in the Black Hills mountain range in South Dakota. I'm a bit sad, 'cause it wasn't mentioned during my history of art studies, though it is an important sculptural artwork of it's kind.

The original idea of carving famous people of American history into the mountains belongs to a historian named Doane Robinson. Gutzon Borglum Danish-American sculptor was commissioned to carry out the project. Mount Rushmore was chosen for it's fine granite rock and the construction began in 1927. Borglum originally wanted to depict the four presidents from head to waist (there are archive photos showing original design carved out in a model) but due to the lack of funding, the figures remained only heads. Gutzon Borglum died in 1941, hence his son Lincoln took over the construction which ended eventually in October 1941.

There is another mountain sculpture in the region which doesn't have the same fame as th Mount Rushmore memorial. It's the Crazy Horse depicting a Lakota Indian warrior riding a horse and pointing with one hand into the distance.

From: T. A.

Date: July 2012

A Resident of the Yellowstone Park

No, this time it's not Yogi Bear :) 

Yellowstone National Park, the most well-known natural reserve in the US. and was the first to be established in the country in 1872. The park spans through three states, the major part is in Wyoming but it extends into Montana and Idaho as well.

Among it's vast number of natural formations, from mountains to canyons, from rivers to lakes, one is the Old Faithful geyser. It is rated as "the most predictable geothermal feature on Earth" 'cause it erupts in every 92nd minute. Wow, that's news to me! The eruptions can be 40-50 meters high and the temprature of the thermal water is so hot that people used to take their laundry into the geyser to wash... But it was a long time ago :)

From: T. A.

Date: July 2012

Grand Canyon

The next few postcards from the US. are definitely favourites of my collection. Thanks to my friend who was on a family trip in the US. visiting a Hungarian friend who has family in Chicago.

Besides the nice photo of this remarkable natural landscape, the style of the postcard is also cool :)
The Grand Canyon is a quite well-known landmark of the States, located in Arizona, so I don't want to make an expansive description, only the basic infos.
The 446 km long geologic formation is distinctive for the many hues of red which enhances it's grandeur. The canyon was carved by the Colorado River and it became a national park in 1919.

From: T. A.

Date: July 2012