After a later arrival at our accommodation last night we had a bit of a lie in this morning, leading to a late start to our adventures into the city.
First stop was the cathedral – Duomo di Milano!
Certainly an impressive building from an architectural view, this cathedral took nearly six centuries to complete, and is the third largest church building in Europe.
The original cathedral here was built by 335, with an adjoining basilica added in 836. A fire damaged the original cathedral and basilica in 1075, thus rebuilt as the Duomo with construction beginning in 1386.
The old baptistery from 335 can still be visited under the cathedral today.
We did go to the info building, took our tickets to get in line so we could buy actual tickets for entry… however it was lunchtime, we were hungry, the queues were ridiculously long and (in the 30 degree heat) neither of us had our knees covered so we settled for admiring the building from the outside and reading about the history instead.
On our quest for food we passed through the high end shopping mall, toured the ferrari shop, and then found ourselves in a little bakery so busy there was a guy controlling the number of people in and out. It was here we experienced our first legitimate Italian pizza (definitely not disappointed!), along with a filled fried bread type thing, and some sort of sweet pastry (potentially a brandy snap???). The stress of choosing under pressure, with so many people pushing and talking, meant just pointing at the first things I saw, so I have no idea what they actually were – except of course the pizza which obviously looked like pizza.
We found a quieter little square around the corner where we sat to eat and rehydrate. How convenient it was that there happened to be a really nice store in that square, which sold beautiful leather bags and wallets… So guess who got a new wallet?
With renewed enthusiasm, fuelled by fatty foods and retail therapy, we continued our wanderings around the city between art galleries and museums.
We enjoyed gelato as we admired the quaint streets lined with old buildings until we stumbled upon a castle. A real castle, according to Darren, one of the biggest in Europe with big walls AND a moat.
As it turns out this castle is the Castle of Milan, aka the Castle of Porto Giovo, built in the 15th century on the remnants of a 14th century fort. From first impressions it looked better than any fort I’ve ever built, but I’d like to think the Duke of Milan had better resources at his disposal.
The castle now houses several museums and art collections, and was bustling with people while we were there. Darren really enjoyed the drinking fountain. I really did not enjoy the broken toilets with very public windows – but when a girls gotta pee…
In a turn of events, the skies began clouding over and were very quickly becoming grey, so we decided to make our way to a metro station with the intention of heading to the canals for dinner (a recommendation made at our accommodation). We walked out of the metro, the skies opened and started emptying. Avoiding the hawkers (who were conveniently selling umbrellas) and the crazy drivers in the intersection (unsure if these were usual driving habits or if losing the ability to drive when it rains is an international thing), we made a dash for cover but as it turns out (unlike at home) the footpaths outside the stores and restaurants offered no shelter from the rain.
There were still several blocks to walk to get to the canals, so we cut our losses and nipped in to The Meatball Family instead. Strangely enough we both had meatballs for dinner – Darren paired his with an Italian beer.
We managed to find our way back to our hotel on the metro – google maps public transport function is really handy in the cities!
Our first full day in Italy is almost over. Can’t wait to see what tomorrow holds!
KJ xx
