No fieldtrip, just vacation, no stress, no pressure from me to myself that I have to find something, just vacation, that`s what I told my wife before we start our summer holydays in Italy. She was just laughing about that.
We spend five days in South Tuscany (Monte Argentario area) and five days in central Tuscany (Siena area).
Our first stop in Italy was a Gas station at the river Po and I pictured a few
Podarcis muralis maculiventris.
We arrived in our Hotel and I checked the backyard, found some
Podarcis siculus campestris
Podarcis muralis nigriventris
Bufo bufo spinosus
On a walking tour in the Maremma I found a lot of Podarcis siculus campestris, a few P. muralis nigriventris.
Two Lacerta bilineata
And a few Tarantola mauritanica.
On the way back from visiting old citys (Savona, Sorano) we stopped at a little lake (Lake Il Bacino) and I found a very nice male P. muralis nigriventris.
In a small river a Natrix tessellata
And two Emys orbicularis galloitalica.
After visiting the old town Pitigliano
we hike around in the area and I found
Zamenis longissimus
And some Lacerta bilineata (Also a lot of nigriventris and campestris)
Dreamgirl
After five days we left the south, the weather was all right, one day with heavy rain shower but the most time it was warm, between 25° and 30° C.
On the way to Siena we made a break on a place that Mario knows very well (Mario thank you very much for that!!!)
We walked around over an hour and found just the normal things, bilineata, campestris, nigriventris, saw some frogs and young spinosus.
And than we use an other way and I found in about 20 Minutes three Elaphe quatrolineata
And two Testudo herrmanni
We arrived in Siena with the heaviest thunderstorm I ever saw in the past years.
The next day it was sunny and cloudy, temperatures about 28° C.
And than temperatures fall down, between 12° !!!!! and 18° C, a lot of rain, less sun, until the day we drove home! So there was not a great chance to picture some thing!
Just Lacerta bilineata
Podarcis siculus campestris
Rana italica
Pelophylax bergeri
I love to make just vacation!!!!!!!