It was just about time to swing left on the Via Vitruvio to return to the Corso Buenos Aires and the hotel. Before I did, though, I pointed my camera to the right to take this shot and catch the morning light on part of older Milano, albeit with a part of newer Milano in the form of that (probably 1960s) block in the distance.

I'm not sure that I care too much for the framing of this, with the car roofs running long the right of frame. Had I been an NBA player and towered over them it might have worked, but here it feels too much like visual clutter. I could perhaps have stepped out behind the first car and concentrated on the far side of the street, but then I think the photo would have looked "unbalanced".

No matter, my goal is to capture a sense of time and place. If I've done that for anyone else, it's a bonus, but looking at this I can recall how it felt to be in that place lo those many years ago.

That said, I would not necessarily want to STAY at that place. What, Milano? No, the Hotel Mazzini, that we can see roughly in the centre of the frame. The area seems OK. The hotel does not, based on the reviews. It has a rating of 1.5/5 on Trip Advisor from 56 reviews, and 2.3 on Google from 70 reviews. Review after review stretching back years mentions common themes; dirty rooms, cots instead of beds, door locks that don't work, no hot water, smells from the kebab shop on the corner permeating the rooms all night and, best of all... the owners, a Chinese couple which several reviews have said spend most of their time yelling at each other, will charge people, then try to strong arm them into paying a second time.

I think if push came to shove and there was no room anywhere in the city other than here... I'd probably spend the night riding the Metro instead.