18/7 - Milan (Part 1)
I felt a bit guilty everytime I poured out tepid or lukewarm water from my bottle to fill it from a cold fountain until I realised that with free flowing fountains (ie Almost all of them), the same amount of cold water would've been wasted anyway.
Trying my luck, I showed up at Santa Maria delle Grazie early in the day but of course tickets were sold out for the next 2 weeks. I asked the woman when peak period was, and she said it was June, July and August, as well as December, which was surprising. With only 25 people allowed in each 15 minutes and it being closed from 1978-99, it was no wonder they were sold out for so long. Interestingly enough, the World Heritage sign was in English, Italian - and French (hah!)
Since I was there anyway, I checked out the church itself since it was a World Heritage site too, with the "complex and perfect architecture of Bramante's church". It was quite interesting - the vaults, arches and part of the dome were decorated with geometric symbols. I almost thought it was a mosque.
Altar
Ceiling
Church from cloisters, Cloisters pond with frogs.
Exterior of church
Pigeons
Unfortunately, the Duomo was under renovation.
Duomo side
Photographs were allowed in the Duomo if pictures were not taken of the priests or congregation. My brother-in-law would have been thrown out.
Duomo front
Giugno (the statue didn't say anything else - maybe he had no surname)
There were lots of Indian men in the Duomo square who were experts at manipulating pigeons (I counted 4 Indians and 1 old Italian - no wonder people oppose immigration!). Where they walked, pigeons followed. At various times, pigeons suddenly flew across the square en-masse, presumably due to things they did. They sold their services to tourists who'd pose with pigeons all over them (due to their holding birdfeed in their hands) and having their pictures taken with the men's polaroids.
I'd been inside a lot of churches, but the Milan Duomo still raised goosebumbs, since it seemed to be one of the finest examples of Late Gothic.
Nave
At first I was wondering at how wonderful the design was, letting in so much light. Then I looked up and realised it was electric floodlights. Gah.
Altar
Stained glass
Altar of St Agnes
Assorted carvings
Dessicated man
BS 'art'
In the crypt there was some funny exhibition, and there was a BS exhibit where the "artist" had taken scenes from some movie about the life of Christ, muted the soundtrack and places a huge black square in the centre blocking out most of the film's image; the lack of audio distraction was supposed to focus the viewer's mind on the message, and the action you could see on the borders was supposed to be enough to suggest what was happening and spark the imagination. I can do this sort of thing too. Maybe I should do that for footage of the NDP or the NDP rally.
San Carlo Borromeo, Cardinal of Milan, 1538-84
There was a sign advertising "Jesus on the web" - jesus1.it. I was wondering why there was a 1 inside. Maybe it used to lead to a porn site. Or it was a case of cyber-squatting! (I just tried it and it didn't lead to anything)
Pool with canale di adduzione and scarico leading to it, abside della basilica cattedrale, 4th century
There was a Paleochristian baptistry under the cathedral.
Duomo
There were police standing around at the side of the Duomo. Their boots and tights looked very smooth. It would be sexier if they were tighter.
At 11:50 I got to the entrance to the steps and found they were closed till 2pm. I wanted to take the lift but eventually decided against it.
1 girl posed for a picture with the policeman manning the metal detector at the elevator. Wah, so relac.
In the square, I saw lots of black men holding handfuls of strings. Some tried to offer them to me. Fortunately, I had been clued in to their evil plot already!
Galleria Vittorio Emanuele - the world's oldest shopping mall
Castello Sforzesco
The many museums housed here were insanely cheap - €3 got you admission to all of them, €1,50 was the reduced ticket and €15 got you an annual ticket (€15 for reduced). Of course, photography and video were forbidden.
When walking around Castello Sforzesco, I felt tired. 7 hours of sleep wasn't enough, somehow. The heat and travel fatigue were getting to me again and I wanted to return to my room and sleep (but then it'd be too hot, so). Maybe I just hadn't had my dose of caffeine yet. I wondered where to go: the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana sounded good, but a specific case of travel overload was art overload. It was worse than church overload. So I decided to go to the Opera House - one thing I hadn't seen this year. And then I'd scale the Duomo.
At 2pm, the number of pigeons in the Duomo square were at most half of those in the morning. Some were hiding behind the statue of the guy on horseback. Smart.
I saw a man with a string around his wrist taking a picture of his family with a black string man. Maybe instead of charging for the string, he charged for the photographs.
Raphael did 2 School of Athens. Gah.
I don't know why Italians like to end their words with vowels so much.
Since enough time had passed, after the Castello, I went back to the Duomo to scale it.
Redux
The route to the top wound its way along the roof where the flying buttresses met the walls. It was the first time I walked on this part of a church, I think.
Buttresses and spires
Roof
Skyline
Me on top
If you wonder why my hair is always tied up in these shots, it's because it was damn hot in July, and if you wonder why it's always so messy it's because in choosing between the conflicting priorities of comfort, neatness, minimal effort required and preventing traction alopecia, neatness was the least of my worries. Besides which, I'd less than 2 years of practice, hardly did so and had no teachers/fellow students.
Sculpture
I saw a guy in a motorised wheelchair buggy (4 wheels, not 2) and a woman was sitting in his lap. Both looked very pleased with themselves. Uhh.
