Flocking to the Vatican

Obviously I wanted to keep this quiet until I got home, as it doesn't do well to advertise to the world that your house is empty for a week!

As my fiancée and I both hit a milestone birthday this year, we decided to do something special to mark the occasion. Neither of us has been to Rome before, and the Vatican State is somewhere that we've both wanted to visit for quite a while. I'm not particularly religious (actually, not remotely), but you can't ignore that religion has provided some of the world's greatest works of art and architecture. I certainly wasn't disappointed.

Aside from the plethora of fantastic buildings, one of the sights I was hoping to see was down to chance. Rome is home to one of the largest urban colonies of starlings anywhere, and we were lucky to see thousands of them on our first evening in the city, whilst walking along the River Tiber. The mass of birds is incredible, and it's mesmerising to watch the shapes formed as they bank and turn. They make a fair bit of noise too.

Nikon D300; Tamron 18-270mm @ 18mm; ISO 125; F/7.1; 1/80s. VC on.

[epzimg]-dsc3740.jpg[/epzimg] Flocking to the Vatican[/link]]Another image can be found here