Saturday evening, after walking around Bologna for over 6 hours, I went back to my hotel room to chill out. Unfortunately, a wedding party was gathering in the main lobby just down the hall from my room. The hotel, I Portici, is very sleek and modern, with not a soft surface in the place, so every voice, every door slam, every shrill laugh bounced and echoed right into my room. As the wedding guests built in numbers, so did the noise. And then I heard bag pipes. That was the last straw. There was no way I’d be able to sleep that night. When I went out to the lobby to request a room change, I saw a sea of all things plaid: A Scottish wedding in Bologna, Italy. The men were in kilts. The women wore plaid of every sort. That was fine with me, but I just wanted to be sure to sleep that night!

I changed rooms, and I did sleep. In fact, I woke up at a quarter-to-ten! (I must have needed it.) I called my girlfriend to arrange our meeting time and she mentioned snow. Huh? Snow? I looked out the window to 4 inches of freshly fallen snow! I hadn’t come prepared for snow, with proper boots and all. For just a flash I thought of “laying low and not doing much” around town, and thought of the snow as a damper on the day. But I was there to explore; I wasn’t going to sit in my room.

Out I went. I protected my camera from the big flakes floating down all day and shot nonetheless. I found that the “snow sky” created its own monotone scheme that I relished. I loved knowing that I was capturing images contrary to the stereotypical “sunny summer days of Italy”. I was seeing the country in a way that most tourists never know. And with the snow, there were fewer people out, and the city took on a different mood.

This morning, back at home in Milano, my NOT-Snow-boots have dried out and the snow and salt line creeps up two inches from the floor. Those poor boots will need some attention, but I enjoyed the shooting out in the snow and wasn’t going to let improper footwear stop me!