MILAN – A travel day. On the way to the airport our taxi slowed down at one point allowing me to shoot a stairway in Porta Nuova – a scene that I shot last time I was in Milan a year ago. Still under construction. Taken with my Leica Monochrom and 50mm Asph. lens.
Porta NuovaAirport
MILAN – Our last day here. I had a shopping day with Maria and this evening we saw Un Ballo in Maschera at La Scala with Marcelo Álvarez singing Riccardo and his wife, Sondra Radvanovsky, singing Amelia. It was a fabulous evening. Alvarez is a star and Radvanovsky is a superstar; the La Scala crowd was cool to Alvarez and accepting of Radvanovsky (who’s an American who grew up in the Midwest) but booed the young conductor, who according to our host was not up to La Scalla level work. This is one tough crowd. Here’s Maria in our box.
La Scala
VENICE – Day two at the Biannale. I did’t even consider breakfast at the Gritti so I foraged for a cafe near the Arsinale for some coffee and a pastry. For the Biannale the Arsinale has been divided into large museum-like rooms. Really interesting. So I spent the morning and early afternoon at the Arsenale, walked to the rail station (all of the way across Venice but actually not very far with Google maps guiding me in a straight line through the maze of winding streets and canals) and took the train back to Milan in time for a dinner party given by some friends. Some obligatory shots of Venice and then the Arsenale, all with my Leica Monochrom and 50mm Asph. lens.
Venice
Tourists were lined up 10 deep to photograph the Bridge of Sighs every time I passed it. This goes in my icons collection.
The Doge’s Palace and the Bridge of SighsThe ArsenaleObsessive ComplusiveR CrumbJunk collectionReally obsessiveInteresting
VENICE – I got up early, packed a toothbrush and clean underwear into a backpack and took a train to Venice and checked into the Gritti Palace – an overnight side trip based on tips from Italian friends that the Venice Biennale is a must see this year. Indeed it is. There’s a theme this year: art and obsessive compulsive disorder (my paraphrase). Very cool. I spent the day touring the national exhibits in the Gardini. All images with my Monochrom and 50mm Asph. lens, except the last one which was taken with my iPhone.
Venice!Biannale IBiannale 3Biannale 2Biannale 4Biannale 5Biannale 6
On this day last year: Dinner party. The vintage Venini object in the foreground was subsequently broken when Basil the Norwich Terrier jumped up on the table to scrounge food. The perils of pet ownership.
MILAN – A day walking around here in intense heat. I complain about Milan – it really is not the world’s most interesting place visually – but the images from today turned out to be interesting. All with my Leica Monochrom and 50mm Asph. lens.
Stone womanDuetsche BankStatueGraffiti
MILAN – This isn’t much of a tourist city. There’s the wedding cake Duomo and the Galleria and the shoppers along the Via Montenapoleone, but these are all fairly well documented, even by me last year. Not much interest in repeating the process. Particularly today because the light is rather harsh. Here’s one from my iPhone.
Milan
TODI – Another good day for photography here. The only sunflower in Umbria (they are late blooming this year); road signs; a cemetery; Malaysian junk food; and our host in Todi. All taken with my Leica Monochrom and 50mm lens.
The only sunflowerIzzaliniMemorialSquid snacksKimball
