Does your city need more art? How Would you do it?
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Sculpture, NATO Headquarters, Milano, Italy
This sculpture is interesting as it uses an old-world style to depict modern events. Its companion on the other side of the door shows Swords, cannons, and banners while this one depicts grenades, ammo belts, and machine guns.
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Categories: Art-Architecture, History, Italy-Sicily, Photos-Photography, Travel Tags: architecture, art, city, citylife, history, instagram, italia, Italy, milan, milano, photography, piazza, piazzalife, sculpture, sights, sightseeing, street, travel
What art has lasted in your town? Share in the comments!

Chiesa di Santa Maria del Carmine with mosaic tile artwork over the door
Another great view of his church and the mosaic artwork over its main entrance.
Mosaics are amazing not only because of the skill required to create them, but also because of their longevity compared to works on canvas, tapestries, or paper. The sun Can or fade them. The rain cannot harm them, for the most part. Their biggest risks are war, earthquakes and the human desire to replace history with something new far too frequently.
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Categories: Art-Architecture, History, Italy-Sicily, Photos-Photography, Travel Tags: city, citylife, history, instagram, italia, Italy, milan, milano, photography, piazza, piazzalife, sights, sightseeing, street, travel
Could your city or town us a piazza? Share in the comments!

Chiesa di Santa Maria del Carmine and Piazza
Another amazing part of Italian life is the piazza — the outdoor living room of Italian towns large and small.
I sat at the cafe here, having my espresso and chocolate crossing and watching the world go by — a wonderful thing to do at any time of day.
I remember this day specifically as I walked into the cafe and ordered a ”caffe, per favore.” As I am clearly NOT and Italian and with Milano being a big tourist town, he responded ”Caffe normale?” This was my cue to use my somewhat limited and strangely accented Italian to say let him know I spoke a few words and, indeed, wanted the usual coffee that the Milanese drink. He was quite happy I spoke Italian and I explained that my wife’s family was Italian so I had to learn the language a bit.
This happened again and again in Milan and led to some great conversations in both English and Italian with shopkeepers, bar owners, and restauranteurs throughout my trip.
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What does “city life” mean to you? Share in the comments!

Daily Life In Milano, Italia
Trams and bikes and people and history. This is what makes up a typical day in Milano
I only had a few opportunities to ride the trams in Milan, but their ever-present nature, convenience and the audible ambiance they bring to the town are amazing. Sometimes, we would sit in our hotel room with the windows open and just listen to city life go by. With is quite different than our life here in suburban Los Angeles.
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What have you spotted along your way? Share in the comments!

Down the street, Milano, Italia
Just one of the many amazing views as we walked about Milan last September. Along with their grand boulevards there are many tiny streets — almost alleys really — like this which give frames views of piazzi, churches and other architecture in the city. It is at times like these where you begin to wonder what year it is until you see something modern that snaps you back to your own time.
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* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs
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