Destination Duomo

 Sunday, September 13

A long drive was ahead of us today - about 4.5 hours to go back to Strambino. Surprisingly the traffic wasn’t bad coming out of the mountains. Semi trucks are not allowed to travel the highways until Sunday evening in order to ease the impact of Sunday travel…hmmm what a concept ..are you listening CDOT? However we did have some construction slow downs as we neared Milan. 

We decided to stop for lunch at what we would call a truck stop. Autogrille is the most famous but we stopped at a Chef Express. All of the food is prepared while you wait and of course we hit the pasta line! Real food made fresh with real plates and silverware. No greasy hamburgers and fries or shriveled hot dogs. A great place to gas up, eat well and impulse buy snacks in the shop!

We arrived in Milan around 4pm. Antonio was willing to drive down to the center of Milan since it was a Sunday. During the week it is too busy to take the car. We found parking not too far from the Duomo di Milano. This cathedral is astoundingly gothic with art and sculptures everywhere. Unfortunately there were people everywhere too. We labeled them the “to sees” and the “to be seens.” -tourists and those who were on display, wearing the latest fashions. Milan is well known for fashion and there are many high end fashion stores in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II which is across from the Duomo. 

Because there are so many tourists now, we had to buy a ticket to enter the Duomo. Barb remembers when you could just walk in. The expanse of the interior is awe inspiring but I have to say not as ornate as one would think and certainly not as ornate as the outside. Across from the cathedral is the museum which had the history of the Duomo. It took 579 years to build- from 1386-1965. The Italians have a saying “Duomo di Milano” when describing an endless project or someone who is very slow. 

The museum also housed some of the original sculptures that were carved in the 14th and 15th century in order to preserve them. Replicas have replaced their spots on the cathedral. Also, cars are no longer allowed in the area which is preventing a lot of marble deterioration from pollution.

The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II was built in 1865 and is Italy’s oldest shopping mall. The space is outside but covered with an elaborate glass and iron roof with a huge dome in the middle. The original Prada store was opened here in 1913.

 A walk through the Galleria leads you to Teatro ala Scala (The Scala Theatre). This is one of the world’s most prestigious opera houses and was built in 1778. We weren’t able to go in because they were preparing for an opera that night.

It was a long day in the car but we sure got our steps in while we were in Milan!