Sunday 11th May
Happy Mothers Day
Today was another short day on the road as we headed to
Milano. The road was reasonably quiet so the drive was not too bad. We even
stopped on the way to put the car through the car wash. Yes – we had to get out
of the car while it took itself through the automatic wash. The guys also dried
the car, wiped the inside and vacuumed the inside. Good job done!
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| They even took everything out of the back seat so they could vacuum. |
Finding our hotel in Milan wasn’t too bad with the help of
Dora – the only thing she didn’t tell us was which way to turn off the main
road. Of course we went the wrong way and it was a long way around one way
streets back to the hotel. We are well located here in Milano – half way
between 2 metro stops and only 6 stops from the city.
After dumping the car we headed to the metro and into the
city. The city metro stop brings you up right next to the cathedral and all I
can say is WOW! What an amazing piece of architecture this is. So spectacularly
ornate – the outside that is. There are just so many individual elements to
look at that you just can’t possibly see them all. It really is just
breathtaking. It is the world’s largest gothic cathedral and the 3rd
largest church in Europe and took 600 years to build.
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| Our first look at the cathedral. |
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| It doesn't look like it is real. |
We took the elevator ride to the roof terraces of the
cathedral where you can walk around the roof and get a look at the skyline of
Milano and also a more up close look at some of the spires on the cathedral.
Pretty awesome stuff! We noticed that the business centre of Milano with all the new and modern buildings is located away from the historical city centre. Following our visit to the rooftops we took a look inside
the cathedral and were disappointed to find that the interior in no way lives
up to the beauty of the exterior. We seem to be becoming church critics as we
have visited so many churches.
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| Up on the roof. |
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| Looking down on the queue waiting to get into the art gallery where there is a Klimt exhibition showing. We decided not to try and visit the exhibition but rather remember the spectacular show we saw in France. |
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| Inside the cathedral. |
We also took a walk around the centre of Milano where there
seemed to be thousands of people – both locals and tourists. There were a lot
of buskers around the city so plenty of entertainment as we just wandered. In some
areas they were promoting Expo 2015 – Milano is host to the expo and the theme
is food. I browsed some of the shops looking for my Italian leather but I think we were in the exclusive shopping section of Milano and thankfully I didn't find what I was looking for anyway. I still have a few weeks to find my special something.
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| The large (exclusive) shopping mall near the cathedral. |
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| Statue of Leanardo Da Vinci. The painting of the Last Supper is in Milano but you need to book to get in to see it and we just didn't have the time to get it organised - and it is closed Mondays anyway. |
We visited the old castle – Castello Sforzesco. It was
originally a fortress, almost destroyed during the Napolean era and has since
been rebuilt to house museums.
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| Castello Sforzesco |
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| The Arch of Peace |
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| Castello Sforzesco |
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| Castello Sforzesco |
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