Here are some more images of happened-upon beauty in Milan:
You will have noticed by now that there are no shots of the Duomo or the Galleria or other famous sites in my collection. That’s because the point of this exercise is not to visit beauty but to see beauty here, wherever I am. So I walk around my neighborhood or, in the case of this last group, carry the camera while I go out grocery shopping and to pick up a mailing tube and some sticky labels. The photos may not be perfectly clear, since I took them while holding the camera with one hand, balancing the tube and my groceries in the other, trying to keep my purse from sliding off my shoulder.
I’ve learned a couple of tricks to uncovering beauty in this less-than-beautiful city:
- Look up – though the ground floors tend to be rather nondescript, barred, and covered in graffiti, there are lovely balconies on the third and fourth floors.
- Look narrow (i.e., at the details) – the general urban fabric of Milan is not so well woven, but a few fine threads sparkle.
An interesting note: Even walking around with a camera, I guess I don’t look like a tourist. Three people asked me for directions while I was out. And I actually knew how to point them to the right place!
