Milan

There were 2 things I wanted to see in Milan, the Cathedral of Milan and the La Scala, the opera house.

La Scala was open for tours but not performances as they were renovating. They were nice enough to put a photo of the restoration by the ticket box. The entire middle of the theater is covered in scaffolding and you can only get view from the third floor boxes. So any view would include the scaffolding. Guess I’ll have to make plans to come back.

All was not lost as the Duomo or Cathedral of Milan was worth the trip alone.

The Cathedral is located on the Piazza del Duomo. This view is from the steps in front of the Cathedral.

This is the Galleria de Vittorio Emanuele II. It is also on the Piazza.

Let’s start with the Galleria.

There are 4 wings and the center dome. There are huge frescoes around the dome.

There are high end shops and restaurants all through the Galleria. I’m not sure if it’s office space or apartments and hotels up above. There is also a great book shop with a good selection of English language books. Guess where I shopped?

It’s very hard to get a good photo of the Cathedral because of the amount of people in the Piazza in front. People and pigeons. There is actually someone selling bird food so you can pose for pictures with pigeons all over you. The idea gave me the willies. The kids in the Piazza are either terrified of the pigeons and running away from them or trying to catch them and running at them. Either option guarantees a sudden takeoff just as you walk by,

This is one of the many front doors of the Cathedral

This gives you an idea of the detail work on the front. The whole of the Cathedral is covered in this type of detail, just amazing craftsmanship.

This is one of the main aisles, it gives you an idea of the size of the Cathedral.

This is the main altar, the area down front and behind it are roped off with only those attending sercices allowed through. There was an 8 am service while I was there so I got to hear the organ. Going early means you get to avoid the larger crowds and later heat. The back of the Cathedral faces East so the early morning sun really lights up the stained glass.

The side altars are beautiful as well.

You can take either the stairs or the elevator to the roof top. I chose the 251 stairs. Have to work off that gelato and pasta somehow!

I walked around the back of the church to get to the stairs. This view shows the amount of detail on the building.

This is my second favorite gargoyle.

This is one of the views from and of the top of the cathedral.

This is one of the stonemason’s working on a replacement piece. I only got 2 photos before I was shooed away. I did talk to another mason. The blocks these are carved from weigh about 250 kilograms, about 500 pounds, crazy.

This is a view of the side of the cathedral from the roof gallery, they were working on the very top so couldn’t get up there.

This was my favorite gargoyle. Looks like something out of Harry Potter!I spent a couple of days just wandering around the cathedral area and my own little neighborhood. I wasn’t staying in an area with a lot of tourists. None of the restaurants had English translations of the menu, but I could figure quite a bit out and had some great dinners.

Hope you enjoyed the photos, on to Venice!