Milan

We had a great trip to Tuscany with Chris’ parents. We lucked out with great weather even though November is Tuscany’s rainiest month.

Tuesday, November 15th, we woke up early, picked up sleepy kids in their jammies and carried them to the van with pillows and blankets.  We needed to be in Milan by 10:30 or so to meet up with Grandma and Grandpa Johnson at the train station in Milan.  We drove for three hours without stopping, then stopped to go to the bathroom and get dressed, and then continued on to Milan through tons of crazy traffic which slowed our arrival.  When we finally found a parking garage big enough for the van (quite the task!), we parked and went inside the massive train station.  Funny enough, it was Megan who spotted Grandma and Grandpa for the first time. 

After a few hello hugs we took the metro from the Train Station right to the very middle of Milan and walked out to this view before us… the Duomo – Milan’s showpiece cathedral.  Isn’t it gorgeous?

‘The Milan’s Duomo is the fourth largest church in Europe’ says Rick Steves.  ‘ Back when Europe was fragmented into countless tiny kingdoms and dukedoms, the dukes of Milan waned to impress their counterparts in Germany and France.  For good measure, the cathedral was built not or ordinary stone but of marble – pink Candoglia marble, from top to bottom – rafted from a quarry about 60 miles away across Lake maggiore and to a canal port at the cathedral.  The glorious façade emerged freshly cleaned in 2008 after a lengthy restoration.’

As SOON as we got up on the square men were trying to sell us bracelets and toys.  We walked past them but Shelley didn’t.  One handed her a handful of bird seed and soon she had a pile of pigeons perched on her arm.   When they flew away the men asked her for money but I shook my head and told her not to pay anything.  Then they asked me since I had taken a picture of it but I shook my head as well and we walked on.  We decided we’d better keep a closer eye on Shelley from now on.

Hungry for lunch we decided to head through the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele – a glass domed arcade perfect for window-shopping and people-watching.  One of the first things I noticed about Milan is how nicely everyone was dressed.  Everywhere I looked I found myself wanting someone’s boots or coat or purse.

 

We fought a great pasta/pizzeria to eat at – one with an empty upstairs for all of us to sit and eat.  It was great.  There’s my pizza.  Eggplant and zucchini.  Delicious.

    

We walked back through the ritzy stores and restaurants of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele and into the main Square to the Duomo.  Then we went inside.  Big.  Impressive.  More than 2,000 statues and 52 hundred-foot-tall pillars.  It was built to hold 40,000 worshippers, the entire population of Milan when construction began.

Then we climbed up to the Cathedral Rooftop.  The climb up narrow curved stairwells was similar to other climbs but the top was very unique.  We wandered through a fancy forest of pointy spires and fancy archways.  It was beautiful.

       

Once we were down from the Duomo we trained back to the main train station where our van was parked and picked up Del and Shelley’s rental car for our drive down to our Tuscan Villa.