Travel Photography - Milan, Italy

A year ago, I made a very unique friend. I had plans to travel Italy for two weeks in November of 2019 to visit a friend that was there for 3 months. Unfortunately, that said friend had to leave Italy upon my arrival and I found myself traveling internationally for the first time ever completely alone. If you know me, I like making friends, so of course I wouldn't be alone for long.

It was my first day in Milan, Italy, and decided to meet up with some random South African girl from the Girls LOVE Travel® group. I took an uber from the suburbs to the Duomo di Milan and met Carlien. We were complete strangers, both wanting a companion to experience Italy with. We bonded immediately. So for the next 5ish days, we met up daily, drank espresso, adventured through the city, shared dinner together (or Carlien would watch me eat), and learned about Italy, each other, and each other's home countries.

Best of all I had a campion to take photos of! Now the weather was not ideal for photography most days, it was so gloomy it actually casted unpleasant shadows, and consistently drizzled. We never did our hair because it would be ruined in minutes outside. But we still adventured throughout Milan and captured some memories along the way.

Throughout the last year, we've kept in touch, and for the last few months have almost talked daily. She's back in South Africa, and I'm in Colorado, but we facetime, zoom, text, and chat like there isn't any distance. I actually taught her to edit photos like a professional, I listen to her college drama and give advice (or just laugh), and she puts up with me trying to get my dog to facetime her.

Basically, we're modern-day pen-pals, which I think is pretty freaking cool. We have tentative plans to make plans to see each other again. We just don't know exactly what country we want to meet next time! Here are some photos I snagged of Carlien throughout Milan: