Back in 2016, I was still maintaining a PESO (Photo Every so Often) gallery. Actually, I still am but the current one has been running for 6 years because the "every so often" part has really been "nowhere near often enough".
I used this shot as my example for that day, which means that the original caption contained some background information about that stage of the trip.
I'll include the original caption as it appeared at that time (save for a corrected typo or two) below.
However to put it in context in terms of this gallery, we previously saw some public gardens (image 160909_073645_1789) off the Via Domenico Scarlatti. Those are to my left in this shot.
The streets that run down either side of the gardens are both called Via Benedetto Marcello. One of them runs one way in one direction, the other one way in the other direction. The previous shot of the closed Biancheria (160909_073714_1790) was on the intersection of the street on the far side of the gardens from me.
If I remember correctly, I walked down that street, around the far side of the gardens, and back up this street. And there I saw... this.
If you return to this place, you won't. Just like the Biancheria which had occupied its location for so many years, this shop (which made its first appearance in Google Street View in 2014) disappeared somewhere between 2020 and 2022.
So let us read on and see the original caption.
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I was a tad hacked off with the hotel screwing up my booking amongst other things (we got rooms, just not the ones I paid for) and decided that the best head clearing exercise was a photoshoot. Off I went into the quiet and the early morning light, wandering through the shops and offices and homes of the Buenos Aires district.
It was a pleasant and diverse district; high end shops, butchers, fishmongers, supermarkets, restaurants, cafes, decent homes. There was a bit more graffiti than I care for, but hey... Italy.
Now, as I said one thing that stood out was how diverse it was... but I still came across something that made me stop. "Il tuo sex shop è qui"; "Your Sex Shop Is Here". My mind then went somewhat like this:
Pause.
Reinitialise Italian comms module, and check translation algorithm for malfunction.
Reboot complete, translation confirmed.
Rotate scanners, zero-niner-zero degrees.
Yup, there it is. It really is there. Right in the middle of all of these residences.
I think I'd rather have a high class pizzeria downstairs. Or a place that makes Milanese risotto. Mmmmm, Milaneeessseee risotttoooo....
Mind you, if you live in Milan you probably get sick of it and develop appetites for other things.
For the rest of the day we headed not here, but up to the Brera district via a few clothing stores, then on to the old palace.
This was, sadly, our last full day in Italia. The following morning I escorted two of our number off to Milano Porto Garibaldi to catch the TGV to Paris, while the other two of us headed north to Zurich via the Bernina Express. With 1160 images taken on that day, it will take me a while to find a couple of representative shots. That, however, is tomorrow's problem.
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