With the recent launch of Google Street View for Spain and Italy the locals have been debating whether or not they think it’s a great mapping tool, or an evil invasion of privacy.

This first guy loves Street View, and wants to give the passing car a great big hug. Awww.

In Italy there’s a whole family of Street View fans, all happily waving for the camera.

These guys can’t quite decide what to make of the Street View car, so much so they haven’t noticed the reversing car about to run them over.

However, this moped driver who is following the car is certainly not impressed.

Finally, these 7000 Spanish fisherman hate Street View so much they’ve organised a mass protest¹!

On the whole, it seems that the public are happy to welcome Google into their cities, but only time will tell how well the service is received as the inevitable privacy concern stories come to light.

Hot on the heels of Street View in Spain earlier this week comes Street View in Italy¹, covering Milan, Florence, Rome and Lake Como.

This is a copy of Michelangelo’s David standing at his original location in front of the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence.

Make sure to tell us what you find, or if you prefer your Italy Sightseeing in Italian, head over to Google Sightseeing Italiano.

Thanks to Google Maps Mania

It’s Volcano Week 3 here at GSS, which explains why all of our posts over the course of the week are very likely to be volcano related.

In a suburb of Naples lies a shallow volcanic crater named Solfatara.

Considered dormant since its last eruption in 1198, today the crater has bubbling mud pools and fumaroles which emit steam containing sulfur and other gases. If you’re thinking that may smell bad, you’d be correct. The stench is indescribable!

Hard to imagine then, people of the late 19th century voluntarily sitting in caves near the crater that were turned into natural saunas. Breathing the air was thought to help respiratory problems while the volcanic mud was considered beneficial for the skin.

While not as popular a tourist attraction as nearby Vesuvius, Solfatara is worth a visit to experience the heat and odour of what the Greeks and Romans were convinced was the entrance to the Underworld.

There’s a little more about the Solfatara volcano at Wikipedia, and lots of info at the volcano’s official site.

It’s hard not to see the rear of a naked woman in the shapes made by this field in Sicily, Italy.

As you can see though, the title of this post refers not to the fact that she’s half naked (as she clearly has no clothes on at all), but rather that she’s only half a woman – as she seems to be missing all her limbs. And her head.¹

Thanks to Santi.

To celebrate International Mother Language Day¹ Google Sightseeing has some really big news – today, for the first time we’re launching Google Sightseeing in a foreign language! Not only that but we’re launching two at the same time – French and Italian!

Google Sightseeing Français will be translated by Julien Gremillot, a 30 year old software engineer originally from Paris, who now lives near Nantes, and who has had a passion for satellite sightseeing ever since Google Maps introduced satellite imagery nearly 3 years ago.

Google Sightseeing Italiano will be translated by Alexei Popov who lives and works in Rome. Although Alexei is originally from St. Petersburg, he has made Italy his permanent home after falling in love with it on his first visit. He loves to travel and says his horizons have expanded incredibly since discovering GSS.

Julien and Alexei will be translating all the best posts from the English language GSS for their own languages, as well as posting some of their own language specific stuff as well!

We’ve still got a bit of tweaking to do, so if you find a problem with functionality or appearance leave a comment here (in English please) and we’ll try and fix it.

If you have a comment about the French or Italian posts then feel free to comment in those languages and our translators will handle your queries.

Of course, we want Google Sightseeing to be available to all, so we aim to expand with more languages in the future. If you are fluent in another language and would like to have your own Google Sightseeing blog then please get in touch.