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Milan, Italy
A gray sky, a bitter sting, a rain cloud, a crane on wing
For the second time this year I found myself in Italy, although this time I was much farther north in Milan. And while Milan may be more than just its legendary galleria, its unbelievable train station and its landmark cathedral, there's never anything wrong with revisiting such familiar killer sights. This is from the roof of the cathedral, where staircase after staircase lead you to a shockingly wonderful space that looks out over the modern and historic city and well past its own forest of statue infested spires.
A fever dream of a picture, this is inside the legendary Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, a covered shopping gallery located just steps from the Duomo on one side and just steps from La Scala on the other.
A quick note about the images for anyone who cares about such things (you know who you are). All of the pictures in the slideshow were taken with my still (relatively) new Sony RX-100 point and shoot camera. I bought it based on a review by David Pogue of the New York Times who gushingly called it the best pocket camera ever made, something that I tend to agree with. The camera has a built in HDR function (which explains the occasional images with blurry people) and takes the best, most reliable low light shots from any camera I have ever used. In addition to the RX-100 images, the panoramas that you see were generated through a program called Kolor Autopano. This particular image of the galleria in Milan was generated using twelve HDR images that were then assembled through Kolor Autopano and then run through Photomatix, creating an image that both captures what is there and reimagines it as a place that is not quite as real as you probably remember.
This is Bellagio, not the casino that George Clooney famously robbed in "Oceans 11" but rather the real life town where the real life George Clooney famously lives, possibly off the money he made (or rather robbed from gullible film goers) with "Oceans 11." Bellagio is at the center of the three forks of Lake Como, an hour train ride from Milan and then another twenty minute ferry ride from the nearest train station. It is a wonderful, gracious place of lakeside promenades, beautiful buildings and a view that is impossible to beat.
You may have noticed in the last picture that the skies over Bellagio were growing ever more ominous, as if the devil himself who made a deal with George Clooney was finally stopping by to collect all that was once promised him. And while that may in fact have been the case (who is to say really), the more realistic explanation is that the weather was about to take a dramatic turn for the worse. With the exception of just a few scattered days, the rain and the wind followed me throughout my time in Europe, as if the devil himself who made a deal for my soul had finally come to collect all that was once promised him.
From the darkening skies of Bellagio, I boarded a ferry back to Varenna and was happy to escape the imminent rain. As the boat headed east, it was easy to follow the rain as it headed north along the lake, quickly blurring the mountains and shore as the storm and ferry converged toward Varenna. Just as the boat docked, just as I got to shore (and just before I took this picture), a ferocious rain swept across the village, scattering tourists and causing any views across the lake to disappear in a white rainy fog.
From the beach in Varenna, after the fierce but short lived rain, with nothing but the lake and the mountains and the lifting ominous clouds (and those two people on the left) to keep you company.
For reference, Bellagio is center left (just to the immediate right of the tree), Menaggio is in the center and off in the distance (both center and to the far right) is Switzerland, where the slideshow will head to next. Something to look forward to I guess.
