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When I started my retirement travels in 2009, I wanted a way to share it with family and friends as it was happening. Hence, "My Travel Journal". However I realized I wouldn't always be on a trip and wondered what to do with the blog in between times. My daughter pointed out, wisely, that travels can also include trips to the kitchen to try a new recipe, trips to visit family, trips to my neighborhood Starbucks, or a fun day trip with a friend. You're welcome to join me on any of these journeys! I've set up individual pages for each of my major trips (see tabs above).

Also, I have an Etsy shop where my current needlework resides. The last pieces I posted here were in 2013! So if you'd like to see what I have accomplished recently, go to (and I apologize for having to copy and paste):

www.etsy.com/shop/thedollhouseneedle

I recently added an "Italian Word a Day" thingie which shows up at the bottom of every page. You see the word and can click to hear it pronounced. I've been enjoying it and I think my accent is improving as time goes by.

October 09, 2014

In Milan and pretty worn out...

Oh my goodness folks. We left Chris's apt at 6:45am on wed Oct 8 and it's now 8:00am on Oct 9 our time and no bed yet. We're at the Milan cathedral and Chris is taking photos while I sit and work at keeping my eyes open. 

It hasn't been bad travel getting here. In fact it was only a seven hour trip. But there was lots of transferring with quite cumbersome luggage before we reached our Milan hotel. And even though getting through customs and out of the airport was a breeze I've pretty much decided no more Milan flights for me even if the fare is incredible cause getting from the airport to the hotel was the worst part of the whole journey.

Most of our day after finally getting to our hotel was spent at the Duomo of Milan.  You can go up on the roof of the cathedray which is not pitched like a roof but is in what they call "terrace" levels.  So that was pretty neat and Chris had a field day taking what I am sure are going to be some wonderful photographs.  I took some pictures also and am going to post them here.
Most of them are of the Duomo which is really downright incredible and very different from any churches I have seen in Italy. Chris tells me it's strongly gothic because of all the enormous amount of trim, carving, detail, etc.  The spires look like lace from a distance and everywhere you look there are carvings from larger   than life statues of saints, bible figures, etc., to bits and pieces of trim - Chris even caught sight of a little corner of looked like a broom closet or something and there was a carving of a large flower pot with a sculpted tree growing out of it.

So, since my eyes keep closing and staying closed a little longer each time I pause to think what to say next, I'm not going to say anymore but will post what I think are the better photos I took today.  They'll all be of the cathedral until I come across some that aren't.  Here we go:








After our visit at the Duomo, we crossed the piazza and went into the Gallieria Emanuel Vittorio II which was built between 1865 and 1877.  It is a real delight - gorgeous without being in your face.  The mosaic floors are wonderful and of course the domed glass ceilings over the two main "thorughfares of the Galleria which meet in a huge dome in the center are wonderful - even on a cloudy day which this definitely was.

We ended the day with a fairly early pizza dinner at a place a few blocks from the hotel and were delighted with how good the pizza was.  I learned that if I ever see "red frizzante" wine on a wine list I will not order it because it was fizzy and I didn't like it.  The pizzas were very good, then we indulged in a dessert each and me a cup of comforting tea and now I'm in bed finishing this up and am going to quit forcing my eyes to open back up.

Buono sera from Milan and tomorrow it will be on to Firenze!



3 comments:

Diane Adams said...

Love the pics. So beautiful. Looking forward to seeing more. I've never heard of fizzy wine before. Interesting.

January said...

Sleep well, Mama (and Chris)! That cathedral is something else, and I really like the pictures you shared of it. It seems massive - was it so huge? Way to hang tough and stay awake for it! xox

Christopher said...

Hey January; to put it in perspective somewhat... On the tours I give at Washington Cathedral, we claim 6th largest in the world. Milan's cathedral is one of the 5 larger ones! (Probably not in correct order, the 5 are: St Peter's Rome, Milan, Liverpool, Seville, St. John the Divine NYC.)

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