#NoFilter Project – Milano Attractions to Visit

Glamorous Milano is known as a cosmopolitan city of fashion, art and architecture. The city has a lot to offer and I will try to highlight some top Milano attractions. I’m also going to give some tips on which Milano attractions to visit and things to do in Milan.

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The #NoFilter photography project, in collaboration with London City Airport, has introduced its third edition of #NoFilterMilan and has invited me and several other bloggers to participate to go back to the roots of photography. The aim of the #NoFilterMilan project is to highlight and celebrate the fact that photos don’t need to be “Instagrammed”, filtered or in any way altered or enhanced in order to tell the story. For those of you interested to learn a few beginner photography tips, scroll to the end where I’ve prepared a short photography for beginners tips guide.

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Duomo di Milano is the breathtaking cathedral of Milano that you will not be able to miss once in Milan. Located on the main square in the center of the city, the cathedral of Milano took nearly six centuries to complete and it’s the largest church in Italy, and the third largest in Europe. The cathedral of Milan is also famous for its gothic architectural style that uses mostly special marble stones.

One interesting fact about the cathedral of Milano not widely known is that Gian Galeazzo Visconti, the first duke of Milano, decided to use marble instead of brick, which was originally intended, for the construction of the church. Personally, I think that the evening is a great time for snapping some photos of the Duomo di Milano, mostly because of the mix of natural and street lights.

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Milan is synonymous with the prêt-à-porter (Ready-to-wear) industry and is known for the famous Quadrilatero d’Oro district. Many of Milan’s boutiques fit in a square known as the Quadrilatero d’Oro. In the central streets of Milan, such as La Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, Via Monte Napoleone, Via della Spiga e Via Sant’Andrea you will find many excellent luxury boutiques such as Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, Gucci, Giuseppe Zanotti, Versace and many more.

Twice a year the city hosts the prestigious Milano Fashion Week, a spring and a fall edition. The Milano Fashion Week is the biggest fashion week in Italy. Take a stroll through the Quadriletero d’Oro as Milan is a great place to shop for designer items.

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L’Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera (Brera Academy of Fine Arts), founded in 1776 by Maria Theresa of Austria is one of the oldest schools in Italy. The Brera district of Milan is a famous destination for art students from all over the world. The Pinacoteca di Brera was built alongside the Brera Academy and functions as a national gallery of ancient and modern art. The Brera district of Milan lives and breathes art in a relaxed atmosphere.

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For all the lovers of architectural innovation visit the Porta Nuova district. The gates of Porta Nuova were built in 1810 out of friable sandstone. After a long period of urban decay, Porta Nuova has been transformed into one of the most impressive zones in Milan thanks to the “Progetto Porta Nuova” and modern architectural innovation. The Porta Nuova district today is categorized as a business district with gorgeous examples of modern architecture surrounded by skyscrapers. The Porta Nuova district is also home to the tallest building in Italy, the Unicredit tower reaching a height of 231 meters (758 ft).

After I’ve spoken about my favorite Milano attractions and things to do in Milan, I would like to encourage you to also go out and take photos! Here are some of my photography for beginners tips on how to take good photos.

Experiment – Start to experiment with your camera and gear. Trust me, the best way to improve your photography is to keep shooting. Try creating some pretty interesting effects with shutter speeds during a nighttime shot, or try to use the panning technique and capture a subject in motion. Unleash your creative side.

Manual mode – Turn off automatic mode and try to shoot in manual mode. It isn’t as difficult as it sounds, but you will need to have the patience to learn and improve. To learn how to take good photos you need to understand how aperture, shutter speed and ISO interact with each other.

Lighting – It’s extremely important to pay attention to light. Light is the most important thing in photography and learning how to use light effectively will really improve the pictures you take. This is one of my favorite photography for beginners tips since light is a powerful compositional tool and can change the emotions of the picture.

Histogram – This is a tool that helps you get a graphical representation of the tonal range in an image. A histogram will measure exposure objectively and it can also describe the amount of contrast in an image. Of course, it can’t replace your eyes and knowledge but it will certainly be valuable assistance.

Tripod – Get rid of the annoying camera shake and take some perfect nighttime shots. Bulky but important, the tripod will keep your photos sharp in a wide variety of situations.

All photos were taken with my Canon DSLR and are not edited. Everything in max 5 photos that will be judged by Sara from Ms. Adventures in Italy.