Italy: Trieste Venice and Milan

My main reason to go to Italy was to trek in Dolomites, blog post and photos to come, but I also spent some time in a few cities as well. I was planning on going from Slovenia straight to Venice, but the woman who hosted me in the mountain hut I stayed at in Slovenia told me she was from Trieste and that I should spend a day there. Trieste was a great place to spend one night, and also a great first day in Italy. Trieste has a lot of history. It was originally a Roman town, and then it became a major port for the Austrian Empire. The main downtown area is architecturally similar to Vienna, and other Austrian cities, and was the perfect place for a blue hour self portrait!

That’s me in Piazza Unità d'Italia, Trieste

I also found this composition for a nice long exposure. Thank you to my subjects for standing still for so long without any direction.

I also got my first Italian pizza in Trieste, and it was delicious. After a night in Trieste I left in the morning to go to Venice for two nights. I didn’t stay in the main city of Venice, but just outside the city near the Mestre train station. There are several large hostels here with trains running every 10 minutes or so into Venice. This was by far the most affordable way to visit Venice. Venice was not a place that I was particularly excited to visit, but since I was gonna be in the area I thought I’d check it out. It is definitely a one of kind place and my first thought was how cool it was. That thought quickly changed to how annoying and impractical it is. The city is made up of many islands, so when you’re walking around you need to make sure you’re heading towards a bridge that takes you to another island in the direction you’re going. And to cross the man canal there aren’t very many bridges. Also, there are very few public bathrooms, which all close at 7pm. So plan to be very strategic about you bathroom usage. My number one piece of advice when visiting Venice is to not get a cannoli. I don’t know what they fill the cannolis with there, but it is not what I expected it to be, and it was not good. Go elsewhere for cannolis. I had a great cannoli in Milan.

If you don’t want to deal with walking around the city and getting lost every few minutes, you can always pay for a gondola ride. These can be very expensive, but they can also help you get around the city. There are also motorized boats that function similar to buses in other cites that are much more affordable than the gondolas, but still much more expensive than a typical bus.

And of course Venice is a very old city, with lots of beautiful architecture.

Something about this little scene caught my eye. Some of the buildings are still only accessible by boat.

After hiking in Dolomites I went to Milan. Milan is a city of fashion. I actually bought a fancy sweater for my mom, and she likes it! It is also a beautiful city full of history and good food.

Milan is very flat. I had a hard time finding vantage points for big cityscapes. I had much better luck with street shots. Milan is a very old city, with many historic buildings, but at the same time very modern looking. I found the look of the old mixed with the new to make for some interesting street shots. Street photography is not my forte, but I’m practicing adapting my style of shooting to the location, rather than trying to force shots that just aren’t there. For the first shot below I made myself go out in the rain, knowing that the wet streets would add a little shimmer to the scene.

Originally I had only booked two nights in Milan. But after a day of rain I decided I needed to stay one more day. I needed to experience a full day in Milan with the sun shining. I’m glad I did. Milan was a great city to walk around. And I found so much good food. I think I was able to cross off all the remaining classic Italian foods that I hadn’t yet tried in Italy. I finally got some eggplant parm and a decent cannoli!

Italy: The Dolomites, Hiking the AV1

Slovenia

Mike Levine