The correct answer is Milan, Italy.
Indeed, Ernest Hemingway based the plot of this story in northern Italy during WWI. The main character is never named but scholars assume it was Nick Adams, a character Hemingway invented to represent himself. Hemingway did serve in the Ambulance Corps of the Allied forces in Italy during WWI. He served in Fossalta di Piave, and was heavily wounded by enemy mortar fire and spent six months in the hospital. This story is a coming of age story, since the protagonist learns that he is not invulnerable and that death can come anytime to him or anyone else.
