Taking video's and photos

[dancing]

Those who have been to cities on the Western tour ( Messina, Naples, Rome, Venice, Barcelona, Monaco and Florence) which places did you find that you were forbidden to take video's and photos? And if you have your cameras with you do they take them when you enter museums, places of worship etc until you are done the tour???

[lv2cruz]

Those who have been to cities on the Western tour ( Messina, Naples, Rome, Venice, Barcelona, Monaco and Florence) which places did you find that you were forbidden to take video's and photos? And if you have your cameras with you do they take them when you enter museums, places of worship etc until you are done the tour???

 

Inside the Sistine Chapel, the guards are very on top of it!

[doctrd]

Have not been to Monaco, but have taken photos at all the other stops.

Many are in the video in my signature below.

 

The only place we were not permitted to take photos was in the Cistine Chapel in the Vatican, and in a small chapel inside St Peters Basillica.

 

Nobody took our cameras.

[Sea Island Lady]

I have wondered about this very subject!

 

On another note, do any of the above have a restriction on dress?

[lambs2]

No photos are allowed of The David at the Accademia in Florence, but DH managed a far-away shot from the hip!

[jayseadee]

We couldn't take any bags into St. Mark's.

 

There was a place to check them, but we opted to take turns with our friends.

[photographia]

Quite a few churches have signs saying no photos. (Actually, many of them don't "say" anything. They have a picture of a camera and a red circle with a line through it--so you can't argue that you didn't understand!) Usually, if you just stuff the camera into your bag, you'll be fine walking around inside. But there are a few places--the Borghese Gallery in Rome comes to mind--which make you check all large bags, and "large" is defined by them, not by the visitor. This is normally because their rooms are small and crowded, and you could conceivably bang your bag into some priceless objet d'art. But in such places, they ordinarily have lockers with a key that you hang on to yourself, or there is a coat-check sort of system and employees are there watching the stuff at all times. In any case, if you're concerned (as I have been in the past) about having your pricey camera stolen, I have found over the years that there's little need to worry about that.

 

At the same time, you can have your camera taken away by the guards in the Sistine Chapel if you ignore the zillions of signs that forbid photos. I don't know myself whether such confiscated cameras are eventually returned or not--and I'm not going to test the system to find out, either! :) In any case, when there are signs in a church banning photos, or banning flash, it's normally an attempt to keep the atmosphere as prayerful and "churchy" as possible, so these signs merit our deference.

[texancruzer]

Most churches, chapels, monastaries, duomos, or whatever, prohibit shorts or tank tops and ask that shoulders and knees be covered. Many places you will see vendors outside selling beautiful shawls/scarves. These are used to cover shoulders or tied around the waist to cover shorts. Talk about taking advantage of a situation :D

 

There are many people who disregard thiese rules.....opting to go in however they are dressed. Sometimes they get asked to leave - sometimes not. I myself would prefer not to have to worry about that after going halfway around the world to see these sites..... so I wore slacks.

 

We found many churches to request no flashes but did not say no photos (except one monastary in Greece). Many of the new digital cameras have settings that will allow you to take photos using "available light". Yes - they will take them away too. Saw one man lose his after he took a flash photo.

 

Sistine Chapel at the Vatican has sold all photo rights to Nippon who underwrote the cleaning which took 14 years to complete. Hence....no photos there. There is also a sign stating "NO talking" and the guards would SSSSHHHH people every so often as they would get louder and louder.

[DavidandPaula]

Rome

Borghese Gallerie - as already indicated you hand in even smallish handbags and definitely camera bags.

Vatican Museums - cameras allowed but turn of the flash. I carried my daypack as we intended to go direct from the Sistine Chapel to St Peters and did not want to backtrack to the entry. Sistine Chapel is no photography (if you are going to try to sneak a photo from hip level then remember to turn of any focus assist features that cause a bright light to show on the front of the camera) but they did not confiscate any cameras or bags when we were there. Also did not take cameras of people who were very obviously taking pictures (some took flash shots and several also used movie cameras) they just came over and told the person to stop.

The Modern Art Museum had a sign that said no bags or cameras but they did not insist on me handing over my daypack or camera and none of the attendants stopped people taking photos.

Florence - Accademia is definitely no cameras but once again I did not have to hand in my backpack. They just checked it. Cameras were allowed in the Medici Palace and we got some superb shots there.

 

Istanbul - main restriction seemed to be no flash, lots of picture taking in all the major venues we visited.

 

David