Last full day in Milan.
We booked a mid morning tour of the Duomo, and set out in plenty of time so that when we inevitably got lost, it didn’t really matter. We’d tried to book a tour but the simplest option we could find was an audio guide which worked out very well.
It included a tour of the archeological site underneath, with remains of various older churches going back to late Roman times.
I’ve been to the Duomo before, the only part I really remembered was the statue of the martyred Saint Bartholomew who converted a whole town and was flayed and had his head cut off for his trouble. In the statue he’s wearing his skin as a cloak.
Did I mention yesterday that the Duomo took around 600 years to build? Incomprehensible. There is a phrase in Italian Lungh ‘me la Fabrica del Domm, which refers to something that you never manage to complete. Seems fair.
From the Duomo we tried to make our way to the castle that we visited the day before but again managed to get lost and then find our way to a department store which had a branch of Simon’s favourite clothes shop, Hugo Boss. There is a rumour that they clothed the Nazis back in the 30s (I’ve just Googled it and yes, it’s true. To be fair the SS always look very sharp in the movies.) I don’t think that’s any part of the attraction for Simon. Anyway,two shirts and one leather jacket later, we were back out in search of the castle.
We found it eventually, and bought tickets for the museums. There are many in the building, but since the Da Vinci section was closed for restoration, unlike the Egyptian archeological museum, which was closed for renovation, we chose to see the extensive collection of paintings. This was easier said than done, because its previous life as a castle makes it very difficult to get around. So, by mistake we also saw the museum of ancient art and the armory. The paintings were good, although being forced to paint biblical scenes seems to be a real impediment to creativity. The infant Jesus is clearly a challenge, you’d wonder if some of these artists had ever seen a real human baby when you see some of the hideous homunculi they come up with. I quite like this picture though:
This is Christ and the Samaritan woman, c1650, and she appears remarkably unimpressed to me. I think it could be retitled Don’t you know who I am??
We left the castle out the back entrance to Sempione Park, and had a pleasant wander around before our hunger drove us to find a place for lunch. We ate outside next to an old historic arch, something to do with Napoleon I expect. I had an eggplant spaghetti that was lovely. There was a tram stop nearby, and it was a simple matter of taking two trams to get us virtually back to our doorstep across town. How I managed to lose Simon on the way is anyone’s guess. He looked as surprised as I was as he rumbled off on the tram with me watching him leave from the footpath. However, he made it home eventually so no harm done.
After a nap we tried to catch a boat ride on the canal. Our tram trip this time was uneventful but we ended up at some far point on the canal with no boat, wharf, or docking structure of any kind. A mystery. As we walked back into town we popped into a wine at briefly so that Simon could have a pee but it was such a cute place we stayed for dinner.
It was after ten by the time we set off for home and as we got nearer town we could see the canal side areas were really pumping with nightlife which was great to see. The evenings are getting quite autumnal here now, I’m nervous that my French women’s summer wardrobe is not going to cut the mustard much longer. Tomorrow we are going to a ski town for a couple of days and the predicted high is 9 degrees so I may need to do an emergency shop. We shall see.