We spent our morning leisurely getting ready for our trip to Milan. Andrea and Francesca had planned to go hiking in the Italian Alps with their friend tomorrow, and they invited us to come along. Since Kosmos seemed to be completely safe and secure in her location, we accepted their offer.
A couple interesting things happened while we were getting ready. First, they started setting up to do a photo shoot right in front of Kosmos. The models had that high paid professional look to them, you know, tall, stunningly beautiful, anorexic. When the shoot finally did get underway, the girls were placed in a way where we are pretty sure you can’t see Kosmos at all, but the rest of the marina is in the background.
We also happened to meet one of the richest couples in Monaco. They were completely unpretentious. You seriously would never guess they had money. They were driving in an old, beat up jeep and were wearing average Joe clothing. Suddenly, we realized we could relax about the snob factor here. Thank God. Christi’s makeup is going back in storage.
Our train left at 1330. We arrived in Milan about 2000. On the way we had an hour layover in the border town of Ventrimiglia, so we walked around for a little bit. The town reminds us of a small Palermo. A river runs through it, so we walked across the river, then found a park and sat in the park until it was time to go back to the station.
The train station in Central Milan is gorgeous. It was built by Mussolini, one of the many glorious neo-Roman buildings of the Fascist era. Like all the old Roman Empire buildings, it has huge ceilings, marble pillars and walls, beautiful facades, statues and mosaic floors.
Andrea explained that the fascio was a symbol of the Roman Empire. It was literally a bundle of sticks with an axe sticking out of the top, which meant power in unity. Mussolini’s choice of the name Fascists represented his intended goal. In all the Fascists buildings that were created, there were generally lots of bundles of things incorporated into design and décor. As we walked through the station, Andrea and Francesca pointed out many fascist symbols, for example, bundles of wheat in the mosaic floor. Andrea said subsequent governments have tried to get rid of as many of the fascist symbols as they could, but many, like the exquisite tile floor just mentioned, are too hard to change.
Rather than going directly to Andrea’s place, we made a pit stop to see Il Duormo, the third largest church in Europe and the largest Gothic church in the world. We hopped on the subway for a couple of stops. Just like at the Colosseum, Il Duormo is literally right outside the subway station. But the effect is completely different. At the Colosseum station, you walk out the door and bam! There it is. Here, Il Duormo slowly appears before your eyes from the bottom up as you walk up the stairs. And the more visible it becomes, the more magical looking it starts to appear. It is absolutely spectacular, easily the most beautiful church we have ever seen in our lives. It truly looks like something out of a fairy tale or Disney movie, so much so that you half expect Tinkerbell to be flying around and waving a glowing magic wand. There are 135 spirals (tall, thin peaks), and each spiral is topped with a statue. Plus there are even more statues all over the building, 3200 statues in all. The closest thing to it we’ve ever seen is the Mormon Temple in San Diego, and that is a weak comparison to Il Duormo.
The building was begun in 1386 and not finished until 1812. Andrea told us that even then there was still work to be done and it wasn’t 100% finished until the 1960’s. It seats 40,000 people. We wanted to go inside, but it was closed. Andrea and Francesca said it was better to come back during daylight, anyway, as the stained glass interior is incredible, and you can’t see the stained glass as well at night. We would definitely be back on Monday to go inside.
We did a 360 around the church, noting it was equally spectacular from all sides. Then we went into Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, located on the north side of the church. It is a multi-storied, glass and stainless steel commercial center built in 1877 to be the showpiece of Milan. The entranceway is a giant arch quite similar to the Arc de Constantino in Rome. There is no door, just the huge arch that leads into a glass hallway. Like pretty much everywhere in Europe, the first floors house retail store, and we kind of gathered the upper 4 or 5 floors are office space. There is a 7 star hotel in there somewhere too. The décor inside is also elaborate.
From there we hopped on a bus to Andrea’s place to drop off our stuff. Andrea’s family keeps a small apartment in Milan for use by the family as needed. Almost as soon as we arrived we were out the door again to go to their friend Antonio’s, who had invited us all for dinner. Antonio also lived in San Diego for a little while, so we certainly had lots to talk about.
Dinner was great. We don’t get very many opportunities for a home cooked meal, and we appreciate them all. He made a huge meal, with a fancy seafood salad appetizer, a sangria wine, mussels, salad, seafood pasta, and bread. Oh, and several different kinds of cheese for dessert, all of which were superb. We are really going to miss good cheese when we get back to America. They just don’t make cheese in America like they do it in Europe.
After dinner, Antonio drove us back to Andrea’s apartment. Francesca had been complaining all day that she wasn’t feeling good, and at dinner said she was light headed and didn’t eat much. She was sitting in the back seat between Eric and Andrea and was kind of “out of it”. We stopped for a red light. There happened to be a bar on the corner that was happening. There were at least a dozen people, probably more, overflowing out onto the street. Suddenly, she starts screaming “Sandro! Sandro!” A guy in the middle of the crowd on the street pushes his way through to the edge, stares blankly at the car, then says in shock “Francesca??” So, it is a coincidence that she randomly bumps into a friend of hers at a bar. It is kind of crazy that she managed to pick him out of a crowd in the few seconds we were stopped at the red light, from the middle seat, while feeling not quite “with it”. Here’s where it gets bizarre. Neither Sandro or Francesca live in Milan. Sandro just happened to be visiting another friend, and she just happened to be on holiday from San Diego.
Needless to say, we went to bed late.
[Oct 11]