I love going to Milan, the city where I come from and where most of my family lives, during the Christmas holidays. The city is all dressed up, tastefully glittery, and festive - a joy to walk around - and the streets are quiet and almost empty of city-folk, many of whom are vacationing on the very beaches and hills in Liguria where I live - which I've just left for the holidays.
I've put a few more photos from our days in Milan on Instagram. Speaking of which, since I already have a photo sharing account in Flickr, in an effort to simplify my "technological footprint", I've been considering posting my cell phone snapshots there as well, and letting my Instagram account go dormant. However, the new Flickr app (used for the above photos) isn't as good as Instagram: the filters are far too saturated to my taste, and there isn't an option to tone them down. There is also a question of privacy: while Flickr doesn't seem able to prevent third parties (like Google Images) from combing through one's account and using their photos, as far as I can see, Instagram can (though Instagram perplexed and irritated many of its users by instituting questionable new terms of service, and then retracting them). So for now, until Flickr improves its app, I'll be keeping two photo sharing accounts: Instagram for quick cell-phone snapshots, and Flickr for photos that I post on the blog.
