Milan

Saturday
First thing on our tour this morning was the spectacular cathedral. Begun in the 1300s, it was 600 years in the making! To see its magnificent marble facade, see my extra photo from yesterday. We not only toured the interior today, but also took the roof tour, where in addition to the wonderful views over the city, you also get to see spectacular sculpture that would otherwise be unappreciated. The roof of the cathedral is renowned for the forest of openwork pinnacles and spires, set upon delicate flying buttresses. The huge length of time it took to complete resulted in a great variety of styles, and over the years has received vastly differing opinions. The American author Mark Twain wrote “ What a wonder it is! So grand, so solemn, so vast! And yet so delicate, so airy, so graceful! A very world of solid weight, and yet it seems ...a delusion of frostwork that might vanish with a breath!..” Oscar Wilde, however, wrote, “The Cathedral is an awful failure. Outside the design is monstrous and inartistic. The over-elaborated details stuck high up where no one can see them; everything is vile in it; it is, however, imposing and gigantic as a failure, through its great size and elaborate execution.”! Inside, the height of the nave is one of the highest in the world - only the incomplete Beauvais in France exceeds it. It also has some huge and stunning stained glass windows. We also toured the Cathedral museum - partly it must be admitted to get an air conditioned respite from the blazing heat outside for an hour or so! After the cathedral, we continued into the Galleria featured in yesterday’s blip, since this was also Magali’s first visit to Milan. Unfortunately, the third main attraction in Milan, Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper, we were unable to see, since we had been unable to get tickets. Roger had tried some time ago online and found it was too early, and then when he next tried, they were all gone! We found an excellent pizza place for lunch, as we were en route to our next destination, Sforza Castle (bottom three pictures). Castello-Brera Sforzesco was originally built in the 15th century by the ruling Visconti but was destroyed and rebuilt by the Sforzas soon afterward. It became a museum complex in the 19th century. We didn’t go in any of the museums, but just toured the outside, and the different courtyards. We had a wander through the surrounding park, trying to find whatever patches of shade we could - it was sooo hot! We then took the metro to the Navigli district, an area of canals, which is now a popular nighttime area with lots of bars and restaurants. The canals were constructed to transport goods from the nearby lakes, one of the most important deliveries being precious marble from Candoglia, used in the construction of Milan’s cathedral, the Duomo. By this time, we’d had enough of the heat, and wanted to return to the hotel and have a cooling shower before going out to eat more locally.