Milan, Wednesday

The first pics today are all from the Duomo. I had the opportunity to go up to the roof, which was pretty amazing, being amongst the flying buttresses and surrrounded by all those spires! The first photo shows the Italians' dual loves - the church and football! The second is one of the giants on the spouts, the spouts being at the end of the flying buttresses, which have a channel between them to funnel water off the roof.
The third is on the roof, and the fourth is in amongst the flying buttresses. The duomo is marble and stone, and there are huge stone slabs making up the roof. The next photo is the Maddonnina, which is on the highest spire of the cathedral and at 109m high is supposedly the tallest of any of Milan's monuments. It's covered in 3900 gold sheets. The last one is a pretty freaky gargoyle up on one of the high towers!

After this I walked through the Galleria Vittorio Emmanuele II. This bloke is famous for, along with Napoleon III, kicking out the Austrians and becoming the first king of a unified Italy. It's very grand, with it's glass-domed roof, and tres exclusive, as you can see from the shops! Of course on one of the corners is a Maccas. Go figure..Luis Vuitton must be turning in his grave (if he's dead!). On the other side of the Galleria is a plaza with a statue dedicated to Leonardo, who spent some time in Milan.

Next stop on the tour was the Castle Sforzesco, built between 1360 and 1370 as a defensive bulwark. Of course this was burned to the ground, and so they built another one... (this burned down and sank into the swamp.. no just kidding!). So it was rebuilt in the 15th century.. bit by bit. If you have a close look at the last photo, there was a gorgeous grey cat sunning itself - I took this one for you Jess!


On the other side of the Castle is a huge park, and at the other end of the park is the very impressive Arco della Pace, or the Arch of Peace. It was built in the early 1800s, and its construction was urged by Napoleon Bonaparte to direct the gaze to Paris, from whence the Emporer could make a dramatic entrance to the city. However later in the 18th century the Savoia family replaced some of the inscriptions and the arch was dedicated to the new unified Italy.
The last photo is the campanile for the church next door - the church of Santa Maria del Suffragio.. it not only chimes on the hour, but sometimes has an extended chiming at 1/4 to the hour....