As it happened, we had a weekend off and spent a glorious summer Saturday enjoying Milan. First was a revisit of the Duomo I last saw 10 years ago. Then, it was grey and swathed in scaffolding. Now, it’d been restored to a beautiful white and tan.
The hotel was just round the corner and I was too lazy stand far enough back to get a good shot of the Duomo in all its glory. You’ll just have to imagine what it looked like with the sun starting to shine hotly down its spires.
The inside, while pretty awe-inspiring in its sense of space, was pretty grey like the last time I saw it.
Nonetheless, the rose window was a beautiful sight to behold…
… as were the many minor side nooks…
… and the beautiful stained glass.
I stood for ages admiring the rich colours of the religious scenes.
But the roof of the Duomo beckoned too. I paid a few euro to get some exercise climbing up the stairs. It was lovely to see the skyline with all the old buildings, not a skyscraper in sight.
On the roof, there were delicate carvings on the flying buttresses repeating themselves over and over again.
And more of them framed the brands of the shops down below.
It was time to answer the call of commercial Milan and go shopping! And right next to the Duomo stood Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, apparently the world’s first shopping centre.
It was beautiful inside, with a lovely glass ceiling and big shopfronts, rather unlike modern shopping malls.
Then the photos stop because I started shopping. I walked the entire Quadrilatero, those few streets housing the biggest fashion brands in the world. It happened to be the first day of the sale and outside the major brands like Gucci, Prada and Miu Miu, long lines formed just to go in. I had to take a break after a while and ended up in Cafe Cova eating the most expensive wild strawberry tart I’ve ever had. To be fair, it was rather big, but paying something like €20 for a piece of confectionery made me blanch. At least it was really yummy before the bill came!
eat. drink. cook. travel. 