Weekend in Milan

Buona Sera, All! Pardon my two week intermission - midterms week was jam packed with studying and Spring break was filled with travel. But I still haven't gotten to writing about my wonderful trip to Milan two weeks ago! Milan is in the northern part of Italy and is famous for being one of the fashion capitals of the world. It has the second largest population in Italy (Rome being largest), and is one of the wealthiest cities in the European Union. As far as atmosphere, it is very much like New York but less crowded –– fewer people and wider streets. I really loved it there.

The first thing we did was to head for the Duomo. Every town in Italy has a duomo (big church) at the center of it. It's all the rage. It took us quite a while to find, though, because Milan is huge! It was about an hour to walk, and along the way we saw a lot of interesting stuff. Adorable houses:


And a building that seemed to be rotting from the bottom up:


Here was our first glimpse of the Duomo:


With a picture of myself in front of it to prove I was really there:


There is all sorts of conflicting information on the internet about the Duomo di Milano. Supposedly, it is the second largest church in Italy (The Basilica di San Pietro in Vatican City stated as the largest.) It's also supposedly the second largest gothic structure in the world, this time second to the Cathedral in Seville, Spain. Whatever the dimensions, it is absolutely stunning. Unfortunately there is some work being done on the facade right now so there is some scaffolding covering the front.


But the inside was spectacular.


Even with the stadium lights at the top of the ceiling, it was extremely dark inside. The most amazing part, which unfortunately can't be seen in these pictures, is that there was a cloud in the middle of the church! It must have something to do with the air circulation, but when we walked in there was a hazy cloud over us. I felt like I was in Hogwart's great hall. But cooler.


The organ:






And apparently, Jesus is indeed omnipresent.


The Duomo faces the Plaza del Duomo (imagine that), which includes multiple tourist-y and over-priced souvenir shops that I wouldn't recommend. There is, however, directly on the righthand corner as you step out of the church, this lovely little gelato shop:


Which has the only cinnamon flavored gelato I've found so far. It was delicious and inexpensive. I would recommend stopping there, and then heading to the Galleria. (The arch in the left of this picture)




The Galleria is (only) about 130 years old, and has a beautiful glass roof arching four stories above a line of designer shops. This is where you'll find the fashion center Milan is so known for.




The Galleria also serves as a covered walkway from the Duomo to the Piazza Della Scala, another beautiful city square which boasts one of the most famous opera houses in the world, the Teatro alla Scala. I was greatly looking forward to going to the opera Saturday night, but evidently you can't just pop by and expect tickets to be availble. (In my defense, all the theatres in New York, including Carnegie Hall, have something called student rush, where each show reserves about 20 tickets to be sold the day of the performance for about $20 only to students. But alas, 'twas not the case here.) However, if you do book your tickets in advance, you can get really affordable tickets. The nosebleed section was only 12 euros. Here is the back of the Galleria, opening onto the square:


The Piazza Della Scala:


And the Teatro alla Scala: (If you want to check out some pictures of the interior, check here: www.teatroallascala.org.)


The front facade of the theatre doesn't do justice to it's size: in the back here you can see the very modern flyloft –– the space above the stage where backdrops and scenery can be hoisted out of the way. We didn't get to see the inside of the theatre, but I can tell from the size of this that it is impressive. It is stated to be one of the largest stages in Italy.


Milan is also the home base of Leonardo da Vinci. The Last Supper is here, at the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie. You need to make reservations weeks in advance to see it, and because it is in am extremely fragile state, only a few people can see it at a time, so there is a long line even with your reservations. So we decided not to do that. But, there is a museum with scale models of all of Leonardo's inventions, called the "Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia."


This is one of Leonardo's flying machine invention - credited with being the grandfather of the helicopter. The idea is that four men would push the center pole around, sort of like raising an anchor, and that would twist the top part so that it would raise up into the air. Doubtful, but a really cool idea anyway.


This machine is actually for testing these wings he had invented to see if they would be powerful enough to lift a man off the ground. According the the museum, it has been tested and the wings would indeed lift a person from the ground, although not very far.


This one is a machine for making mirrors and concave lenses.


He also invented the paddle boat.


He also had lots of plans for weapons and other war time ideas. These are battleships he designed. Note the large scary puncture arm on the left one.


And this one is intended to be a sort of battering ram to puncture the hulls of other battle ships. Interesting, but I don't personally believe that the force from just rowing this boat into another boat would sufficiently sink it. It might throw everyone in this boat into the water, though.


There were a lot of these - photos availble upon request :) Haha. The museum was filled with a lot of other interesting things as well. The had an entire wing of old musical instruments that I think my dad would have gotten a kick out of:




Complete with the stages of making a violin:










There was also a submarine outside. Now, those of you who know me well know that I have an overwhelming fear of Blue Whales, ship hulls, blimps, hot air baloons, and submarines. Yeah, I don't understand those either. However, I was extremely proud of my dignified, if not hurried, walk past this submarine. I even stopped to take a picture to share with you.


However my response to the unexpected surprise in the next wing of the museum was not so dignified. I made Tim go back in and take these pictures:




But I did eventually drag myself in there because my navy man wanted a picture of himself looking manly in front of a ship.


We also found some unintended artwork:


We were a little museum-ed out for the day. So we headed for a rather strange destination for tourists -- Milan has one of the most elaborate, beautiful cemetaries in the world. So we thought we'd give it a go. There were a few sites of note along the way:



My mother's favorite painting graffitied on a garage door:


It took us much longer than expected to walk there, but the Cimitero Monumentale ("Monumental Cemetary") was completely worth the visit. It was astounding.








Jesus Iwo Jima style:


And I don't think this was originally as creepy but the oxidation made it really cool:










Some good humored soul built himself a pyramid:


And last but not least, someone make a 3-D version of the last supper for their mausoleum.


Here's me showing utter disrespect for it:


The next morning, we took the subway to the Milan's Modern Art museum:




"Modern" in the Milan art world evidently means "only a few centuries old," however. Haha.


Not quite the MoMA, but pretty neat. It is housed in a former home of Napoleon's, and the building itself it a work of art:




They had a small collection of Picasso's and other actually modern pieces, but the first modern art piece that really interested me there I saw out of the second story window:


The Natural History Museum is right down the street. It was really fun to walk through. Sort of a "fun for all ages" kind of place. Tim was entranced by the geology section:






Complete with Pink Floyd pride:


And he was highly confused by this turtle-dinosaur-thing.




The museum also had a rather whimsical side:


As does Tim:




They also seemed to have a display of Japanese horror film scenes:


I unexpectedly found myself confronted with another blue whale skeleton. Now, harkening back to my previously confessed fear of strangely oversized things, I should note that my two best friends in New York had to drag me to see the huge hanging plastic blue whale in NYC's Natural History Museum. It took a lot of preparation and patience, I assure you. But this was a very sudden an unwelcome encounter:


Now look at that mouth. If anyone is wondering now why these scare the hell out of me, just imagine yourself next to that in the middle of the ocean. Oi.


Tim patiently managed to get me past that without hysterics. But a few rooms later - there was ANOTHER one.


Now, at this point, after the submarine and the ship and BOTH whales, I'd decided this was a sign from God or the Great Spirit or whatever - I was supposed to deal with this fear today. So look at me there - standing under the big scary whale alone. Only long enough for the picture, mind you, but I did it. Go me. I was pretty sure that merited more gelato:


And one last beautiful view of the Duomo before heading home:






Thanks for reading! Posts from Paris, Rome, and Scotland soon :)