O Milano!

June 21: Early in the morning, the trek back to the train station for another journey--this time into Italy, where our first stop was Milan, the commercial center of Italy, according to what we read.

The train journey was relatively uneventful, and the train station in Milan was grand and huge, with connections to the metro lines and buses as well.

Because we arrived too early to check into our Airbnb, we had lunch in a cafe at the station, where we learned the ways of eating in cafes in Italy: you could order at the counter and stand there to eat whatever you ordered (I guess you could do this with a three-course meal if you wanted, but who would want to do that?), or you could sit at a table and order from a server for an additional cost. We chose the second option, and then amused ourselves watching the server telling people who had ordered their espressos at the counter and then sat at a table that they would be paying a fee--or getting up and standing somewhere. Makes some sense. And we liked our server--which was a good thing, because he figured in our future again (stay tuned).

We took the metro to our designated stop and found our place, with one of the more unusual lockbox locations--tightly locked to a signpost across the street. Once we found the lockbox and got into it, there were four keys to get into the place (the first door was cut into a pair of huge doors that doubtless in the past opened to horses pulling carriages into the courtyard inside), so we felt quite secure leaving our passports behind while we explored. And our short time in Milan would be very full!

Our first adventure, after a bit of a rest from our travels, was to get ourselves to the big blue and yellow tent that can mean only one thing: Cirque du Soleil! Yes, we traveled all the way to Milan to see one of the many Cirque shows that constantly travel the world now.

Many of you know that I fell in love with Cirque du Soleil when I saw them in Los Angeles back in 1985, after they had been such a hit at the 1984 LA Olympics Arts Festival. They returned to LA in early 1985, and I think I saw that initial show at least three times. Then, over Memorial Day I took friends to the show in NYC, before they had a climate-controlled tent--it was something like 98' with 99% humidity that afternoon. I can't imagine how terrifying some of those acts must have been for the performers. My sweaty palms couldn't have grasped anything firmly in that heat.

Anyway, this aside is just to emphasize how long my relationship has been with this company--although I went through a long period of estrangement and disillusionment with them, when they just kept trying to outdo the previous show and overproduced everything (at least that's the way Cindy and I felt about them). But what the heck, we figured, let's see how they're doing. So we trekked off to the far reaches of Milan, with a stop for dinner on the way, and found that tent and all its little ancillary tents.

Fortunately, there's little need to understand any spoken language at a Cirque show. It was a fantastic performance from the pre-show antics all the way through to the grand finale. Seems that Cirque du Soleil, at least for Cindy and me, has gotten its artistic mojo back. What a fresh and exciting--but not overly composed or choreographed--show it was!

The set struck me as a sort of "steam punk meets the Yellow Submarine" look. This photo of course doesn't do it justice.

We had a grand night, and found that the Milan metro system was really easy to navigate. Walked back from the station through quiet old city streets at close to midnight, with nary a concern about any danger. We discovered the next night that the city was very awake and active just a few blocks from where we were.

The next morning was beautiful and already pretty warm when we set out for the day's activities, which began with breakfast at a cafe along the street toward the Duomo. Those aforementioned cafe rules applied there, so as soon as Cindy made a beeline for a table outside--even though we had ordered at the counter--I assured the manager that we would be happy to pay the extra cost for the table service. My, they're touchy about this...

The view from our cafe table--I loved seeing that church peeking out between the other buildings.

From there we headed to Il Duomo, one of the most magnificent cathedrals in the world, construction of which was begun (probably) in the late 1300s--and the place has never been called completed, due in part to its immensity and in large part to the Candoglia marble used. That marble is stunning, with a pink tinge, but it's apparently quite fragile, so repairs are always ongoing. The high altar was consecrated in 1418. Leonardo da Vinci did some work on the tiburio--his first contribution to an architectural project. Architects, engineers, sculptors, stonecutters, all gathered from all over Europe to work on this project--for centuries, I think. This is the fifth largest cathedral in the world; it has 3,400 statues, 135 gargoyles, and 700 more figures ( bas-relief?), including the Madonnina, a gold figure that stands on the tallest tower--the tiburio, I think; and Napoleon restarted the languishing project after a very, very long time.

Cindy is dwarfed by Il Duomo, which dwarfs just about anything in its proximity.

This guy was not intimidated by Il Duomo , but why would he be? He was King Vittorio Emanuele II (and he has his whole galleria right back there behind him).

So we made our way through a lot of scaffolding and fencing that were being installed in prep for a big rap concert--another juxtaposition of very old and relatively new. The Duomo was, in a word, HUGE!! And full of churchly things.

I took so many photos that I can't figure out what to post, but this starts a random selection.

Just look at this ceiling!

Cindy humored me by trying to hug a pillar. Didn't quite work. There are 52 of these pillars, one for each week of the year.

This is probably the most famous statue in the Duomo--it's St. Bartholomew, skinned (with

his skin draped around him). Beautiful lesson in human anatomy.

From inside the cathedral, we went outside to enter the stairwell to climb the 250 stairs to the roof--easy peasy, given our stair experiences. But it sure was hot once we were on that roof!

I was so impressed by the stonework; from the ground it looked like delicate lace.

Not quite so lacy up close, but still amazingly intricate stonework.

Striking examples of the difference cleaning the marble makes. That Candoglia marble really is beautiful. The scaffolding necessary for the cleaners is not so attractive, but so be it; the result is worth it.

And boy, was it HOT up on that roof! We finally came down and headed to the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II to see if we could cool down. Found a place that actually would serve us iced tea, and we made that tea (and the ice) last as long as we possibly could, watching all the people pass by.

Came across some new fish/dolphins:

I just can't remember where I saw them...

We spent a great deal of time trying to find a certain small museum that was just elusive as hell. In the process, we saw lots of interesting buildings and monuments, including this Napoleon in the courtyard of a school of art and architecture that was one of our stops on our museum hunt:

And we found a stumbling stone!

Ever since finding our first ones in Amsterdam, we'd been keeping an eye out for these. It feels so special to find these little plaques and spend a few minutes remembering the fellow human beings who met a horrible end just because they were deemed different by men who had gained power through a fluke and who seized that power to use it in truly evil ways.

We finally found the museum, and spent the afternoon wandering among religious art that by this time was looking remarkably like all the other religious art that we'd already seen. But the building was interesting and beautiful.

And we found this treasure:

We were done. And we had to get ready for a big night, so we went back to our apartment to rest up just a bit before heading out to an early dinner and...(drum roll, please!)...La Scala! Yes, we were on our way to the opera!!

But that's the next chapter.