Category: Italy

Sforza castle is within an easy walk from the Duomo, in the heart of fashionable Milan. I wondered around in the inner court of the castle when waiting for my time slot to see Leonardo’s “Last Supper” at the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, which is also located nearby. A couple of other tourists were also killing time for the same reason, sitting on benches by the colourful flower beds filled with poppies.  

The location of the castle in the middle of a modern metropolis is in sharp contrast to the deep moats, surrounding its high walls, the original purpose of which was clear – warfare. A man was throwing frisbee to his dog in the grass-covered moat, and I could not make up my mind what was more out-of-place – this peaceful scene or the stone cannonballs piled up in the moats. I think it’s the former; the calm of a modern city life and seemed like a superficial patina on the tough nature of the place.

The only way to see Leonardo’s “Last supper” without making a reservation several weeks in advance (which I neglected to do) and without going on one of the overpriced city tours that include a visit to the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie (which were all booked anyway) is to show up at the ticket office at the opening time and buy a ticket for the first available time slot.

After I did that, I had a couple of hours to kill before my designated time. I spent them wondering around in the Sforza castle and its vicinity, taking pictures of random street corners and patterns along the way. Most of these sites are so obscure, that I actually forgot about taking the photos until I reviewed my files a couple of months later.

An interesting feature of Milan, for me personally, was the very prominent presence of armed military personnel on the streets. They were part of “Operazione Strade sicure” – an ongoing initiative to use armed forces to preserving public order and to fight crime. This is certainly not typical of North America, and I thought it would be interesting to photograph the soldiers. After all, it would be a kind of “men at work” type of a photo series.

However, for some reason I found it awkward to take photos of the soldiers most of the time. I guess, this was some kind of self-censorship at work, where I was projecting my expectations of not being allowed to take pictures of security-related activities (e.g. near luggage-screening areas in airports, some bridges in US, etc.) To be fair, I have never seen any signs prohibiting photography of the Italian soldiers, and they gave an impression that they probably would not mind a photo opportunity.

While enjoying the incredible views from the terraces of Duomo in Milan, my instinct was to snap some cliché images of the Gothic statues superimposed on the modern skyline, without any human element or significant emotional content. This is a typical reaction of a photographer to a famous (i.e. often-photographed) tourist attraction.

This time, however, I tried to be mindful and take photos that would be representative of my experience of that place and that moment – being tired after climbing hundreds of steps of a narrow spiral staircase, trying to imagine the thoughts of the artists, who created the countless sculptures that cover the cathedral, watching tourists enjoying a cool breeze on the rooftop or looking at their maps and planning visits to other sites…

I think that analyzing my subjective experience of a famous site produced a greater variety (and perhaps even quality) of shots than trying to reproduce iconic shots taken by someone else would have allowed.