Milan

Tuesday this week we took a day trip to Milan. After taking the train through Milan a few times, I did not have very high expectations for the city. However, since it is the "fashion capital of the world" I thought that it might surprise me. While there were nice parts to the city, I have to say most of the city seemed kind of dingy, and not really worth seeing. We started our day trip with a 720 train to Milan. This train meant a long day for us.. since we would not be getting back until 9 that night.

Once in Milan, we went directly two two churches. The first was the Santa Maria delle Grazie, from the outside, this church seemed kind of small and insignificant. The history of the place and the inside as well as the backside of the church were much more impressive. A museum right beside the church housed the Last Supper by da Vinci. We didn't see the painting because it takes more than 4 months to get reservations with a group of our size to see it... but I saw the building that it is in!

The next church we went to was the Basilica di Saint'Ambrogio. This church was very nice a well.. but compared to all of the churches we have seen, I was not overly impressed with it. There were monks singing in the inside(somewhere) of the church which was cool to hear, but other than that, this was just another church.

Finally we went to the Cathedral of Milan. I was excited to see this church because Guiditta was telling us that it took 500 years to complete it. I was thinking to myself, "how on earth could it take 500 years to build one building?" Once I saw this thing, I understood why. The details on/in/around this building were ridiculous(in a good way). There were so many tiny details covering every inch of the building! The only problem with taking 500 years to build a building is that only one of the many architects and commissioners lived to see the building complete. Guiditta told us that they were still building parts of the church while they were renovating other parts due to wear and tear. We got to go in the church and to the top of the church as well. At the top, we were able to see the sculptural details up close and we were able to see a great view of Milan. Everything about the inside of the church was impressive as well... even the floors!

I left Milan with a little of a changed attitude of the place. While most of the city seemed a little dull, the Milan Duomo was really cool and by far the highlight of the city! Also, being the fashion capital, there were some very interesting fashions which were cool to see(in some cases more entertaining(strange) than cool).