Italy

Well, it has been a while since my last post.  I have been tied up with all kinds of projects and whatnot, and honestly haven't had a whole lot of time to go out with my camera.  However, I just returned from a three-week trip to Italy last Friday, September 20th.  We travel a lot but never have I been away from home that long in my life (well, at least as long as I've been working - I did spend weeks on end in rural Georgia three times when I was a teenager).  In planning for the trip, I decided to spend some time field herping when possible.  Well, it turns out that I wasn't able to dedicate any serious time for that - long story.  But, I did take advantage of any and all time when I was in proximity to reptile habitat and kept my eyes open for local lizards.  I know that Italian wall lizards (Podardis sicula) are plentiful throughout the country, and did I ever find them, in all but one major stop in our travels.  I really wanted to find Western whip snakes (Heirophis viridiflavus), grass snakes (Natrix sp.), Vipera aspis, and even the common toad (Bufo bufo), among others, but alas, I wasn't able to get out to the right habitat the way I wanted to. I did manage to see a few species, and just being in Italy was an amazing experience.

Our first wall lizards were found on Isola di San Michele, an island cemetery just a short vaporetto ride from Venice.  Not only were there wall lizards, there were thousands of wall lizards - running about every which way as we strolled about the island.  And for every lizard, there must have been 50 mosquitoes.  We experienced these mosquitoes in the shaded areas of the cemetery, which were at a premium during the searing heat of the day.  I managed to catch one or two young lizards before the mosquitoes chased us out of there.  We paid the price with countless itchy bites wherever our skin was exposed.

Some areas of the cemetery were in ruins.  This is where the lizards were found in greater numbers.

Our next stop was the region of Tuscany, where we stayed in Florence, Pisa, and Sienna.  However, there were no opportunities for field herping.  After Tuscany, we headed to Rome, where our next lacerta friends were found, all in the Ancient Rome ruins.  It was very hot and all lizards were seen cooling off in the shade.

Some wall lizard habitat

Our next leg of the journey took us to the smelly, decrepit city of Naples, where no lizards were found but cockroaches fearing neither human nor sun thrived.  Nearby, on the island of Capri, however, they lived in luxury.  In addition, they were found basking on Mt. Vesuvius, even at the summit (at over 4,200 feet).  

Capri

This guy found what appeared to be colored pieces of pet food.  I think someone actually put these here for the lizards, because I watched as one lizard struggled to swallow a few of these pieces before giving up.

Mt. Vesuvius.  It is most definitely brewing in there...

Sicily offered a more rural landscape, and a more diverse array of herps.

What I believe to be a Mediterranean painted frog (Discoglossus pictus), found at the edge of an in-ground swimming pool in the mountains of northern Sicily.

A katydid found nearby

There were a number of nocturnal geckos present at various locations in Sicily.  I saw both Tarentola mauritanica and Hemidactylus turcicus).  This young one was found at a friend's house.

And these two large adults were found in a ruin atop La Rocca, Cefalu (about 900 feet).  This was as close as I could get without falling into the pit of death and becoming part of the ruins myself.

That pretty much covers the herptofauna I encountered on my trip to Italy.  I was kind of bummed that I didn't have more time to poke around in the mountains, but there is always next time.  Besides, I decided that because of the lack of time spent field herping Italy, I'll simply have to make up for it here before it's too late for the year.  I hope to make at least one more outing in search of reptiles and amphibians.  Stay tuned...