Milan part 2

Part 2... make yourself a cup of coffee.

While travelling to and from the hotel, we always passed a big fancy-looking building that we eventually had to check out. The place happened to be a huge cemetery, the Cimitero Monumentale. This is where many notable and wealthy Milanese are buried. The main building was the gallery, where in some places an entire room was devoted to one memorial/tomb and in other places the walls were covered with tombs and plaques and memorials right up to the ceiling.



We took a walk on the grounds beyond the building, which was 60 acres of very fancy artwork indeed. Elaborate sculptures all over the place, and mausoleums as big as houses. Not sure if it's a Roman Catholic thing or just an Italian thing, but they sure put serious money into graves! The row-house mausoleums even have addresses and sit beside roads, making it look almost, but not quite, like a regular community. There were some plain burial plots but not too many; I imagine there are other cemeteries a little less lavish for those who can't afford to 'live' here.



A strange place to be a tourist? Not at all; there were several busloads of people there at the same time we visited, and walking tours were being given. I did, however, seem to be the only one taking pictures...

Elsewhere in the city we stumbled across a skeleton. It was covered with a tarp so we didn't get to see the whole thing. My, what big feet it has...



So apparently it's the work of the late Italian sculptor Gino De Dominicis. (I just stole this pic off the Internet.) If you look closely, you might just join me in concluding that this skeleton is the late Pinocchio.



The next day or so, we had an aerial view of said skeleton when we climbed to the roof of the church right beside it. Which brings us to Il Duomo di Milano.



The Duomo is the major cathedral in the city. The second largest Gothic cathedral in the world, it is faced completely with marble and is amazingly detailed. It holds 40,000 people.



Inside are the usual boatloads of 'books for the laity' and we didn't spend much time inside. Instead we chose to go to the roof, which is accessible by elevator or stairs. Stairs were cheaper so that decision was easy.




The Duomo faces the main city square which is generally teeming with people and seagulls. The gulls tend to fly pretty low sometimes; I suspect they're used to flying unhindered at an altitute of just over 6 feet, so they and I both flinch when suddenly my fat head is in their flight path. I didn't get hit though. And we didn't get pooped on; surely that must happen, but we weren't witness to any such episode.

Off to one side of the square are two covered streets whose intersection is an octagon. This is the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, an important step in the evolution of the modern shopping mall. The roof is arched and made of glass and steel. Some very famous brand names grace these particular streets; as we walked through the intersection, I noticed three of the stores at the prime location of the intersection itself: Prada, Louis Vuitton, and... McDonald's of all things.



The covered street leads from the city square to the world-famous opera house La Scala. It's not very impressive to look at, so I didn't even take a picture. We strolled by it to hopefully get a peek inside, but it seems that, unless you're attending a show, all you can do is pay to get into the adjoining museum, which I have to say isn't our cup of tea. We did run into a scalper who had front-row seats to the evening's opera performance for only 100 euros each, but that was a little too steep for us; besides, front-row seats are generally not the best vantage point.

We did a bit of window shopping after hours (much cheaper that way), finding ourselves in the trendy district with the big names in fashion: Armani, Versace, Fendi, etc., etc., all cool stuff if you're into paying $2500 for your next handbag. At least we saw what Milan is known for.

Our final stop was Lake Como, which is a resort town in an area where apparently many celebrities have lakefront retreats. It was nice and relaxing; we took a boat tour to a few nearby towns and went for a hike for a nice view of the area. Fun to experience, not much to talk about. Have some pictures.