My walk through Milano

The day started early with a visit to the castle (who knew Milan had a castle) and its accompanying museums. It was basically along the same path that I took yesterday to the last supper but just about twice the distance. So I am figuring 30/45 minutes. Not surprisingly got lost again so took more like an hour. The traffic circles and Ys really throw me. Good thing I had a good breakfast at the hotel. By good I mean rolls, cheese and prosciutto. I even had hot chocolate. Anyway when i finally got there and ran the gambit through the Sudanese all wanting to sell me something or tie a bracelet on my wrist it was more fort than castle but still impressive.

I wandered a bit and went through a few of the museums. The paintings and the sculptures portions primarily. It has the Pieta Michelangelo was working on when he died. The faces were unfinished and he was redoing portions, Jesus had three arms, one was no longer attached to his body so I assume it was coming off. It was along the lines of his finished piece in saint peters in Rome but Mary and Jesus are standing and perhaps a more anguished look on her face. But since he died before completing it we will never know. It was interesting to see the chisel lines. I don’t remember this from the slave pieces in the Accademia.

From there I headed down the pedestrian shopping area to the Duomo. The shopping is a mix of high end and everyday stores and the area is filled with street vendors. I saw a man carving fruit and vegetables into flower and animals but the most impressive was the Asian girl doing a balancing act. See if you can figure out how she is doing it from the pictures. I never could. I tried to wait her out to see how she got down but she stayed up the whole time I was in the area.

I made it to the Duomo and it was a mad house people were everywhere. It is very different than most of the other italian churches. The spires and sculptures look more wedding cake then heavy gothic architecture. It was amazing both inside and out. Even though it is huge it is dark and heavy enough that you feel like you are in a church. Of course the fact that a service was going on while I was inside might have helped but also made it awkward. They let you take pictures but it felt weird. Of course I did it anyway but I did refrain from a few. They had several cardinals on display that were not as well preserved as the two saints in Rome. They should have covered them up more. At least one had gloves. The church also had this weird little gift shop kiosk in the back like you were at the mall or something. It was a little glass dome and you picked your items by the number on the display. Good thing there were not too many people in line.

Once I was done with the church I had my whole afternoon left unplanned. I had intended to do the hop on and off bus around town but you had to buy your ticket at the first stop and I didn’t want to walk back to the castle. So that was out and I had pretty much done all the art museums I could do so the Brera was out and that left some other churches, the high end shopping and a comic museum. The high end shipping was right next door to the Duomo so I did that but it was about 10 minutes. I walked through and admired the window displays but wasn’t brave enough to go through the security to go in any of the shops. Prada had the best windows. It actually looked like things you could wear. Versace’s stuff was crazy. There was no one in any of the stores that I saw. People were more likely to buy the crazy jumping cars that the gypsies were selling in the courtyard than anything in the stores.

From there I had to decide and chose the comic museum. First off it was having a spaghetti western themed comic book exhibit and I hoped to be able to get josh a T-shirt for his Christmas gift. More importantly it was a straight road it didn’t curve or Y or anything the other churches were in the area I never figured out how to navigate.

So with map in hand I headed off and walked and walked and walked. I didn’t get lost but it took forever to get there. When I finally made it I had 45 minutes before it opened. I had stopped on my way for both lunch, coke and gelato so I didn’t really have anything else to do. Sadly there wasn’t much around the museum but a park so I just sat and watched the kids and dogs play.

It finally opened and although cute and different there was not that much too it. Took me about 20 minutes and I was trying to read the italian ( which I should have been better at since I assume it was geared for kids) now I just had that long walk back. However as in most trip it never seems to take as long coming back as it did going and I soon was back in the duomo area. The line for the museum was crazy long and my feet hurt too much to stand in line so I headed back to the hotel. I figured I could shop for a while after I rested my feet. Since the hotel is on the opposite side of the non-navigable area I decided to take a cab. Before I hit a cab stand I found the metro stop and knew there was a stop near the hotel so I tried my luck. Other than the train being super crowed it went smoothly and I was back at the hotel in 10 minutes. I am sure if I had tried to walk I would still be wandering the streets of Milan.

My hotel is in a nice neighborhood with shops and restaurants after a short break to rest my feet I headed out to piddle a bit. I thought I might get a drink it was around 5:30 but couldn’t find a place. The bars that had been packed yesterday at happy hour time were not even open on Saturday till 7:30/8:00. Even some of the stores were closed. However, the shoe shops were open and I had yet to purchase any shoes so…

I had been eyeing these oxfords everyone was wearing. The soles are heavy and chunky and the came in black, brown, cordovan, green and combinations of those colors. I tried on several pair and decided on a cordovan and black pair. They are very cute and surprisingly the least expensive I tried on.

Still no luck on a bar or dinner so I went back to the hotel to wait till 7 when I felt sure places would be opening for the 8 crush.

Right at 7 I headed to the pizzeria. It was pretty empty maybe 6 tables being used. I had a glass of wine and a cheese and tomato pizza for my last meal in Italy. When I left at around 8 all the tables were full and there were people everywhere waiting for tables.

After dinner I went for another small gelato. The place near the hotel has a really good fondante. Two days in a row for double gelatos not good for my diet but making up for missing a few days earlier in the trip.

The gelato was a fitting end for my time in Italy. I can’t believe it is over.