For The Love of Travel

A morning for wandering around the ‘hood. A brutalist structure down the road from my hotel caught my attention…designed by Marcello Piacentini in the late 1920’s, who employed Antonio Maraini to sculpt the portal gate with figures representing virtue, work, love, home, family, fidelity and health. Currently, the home of the National Social Security Directorate.

The lovely Giovanni Galli sweet shop, founded in 1911, is just around the corner – marron glaces and pralines are their specialty…but there are also choccies; jellies; nougat; marzipan – they are preparing boxed-up presentations ready for (seemingly) banquets on St Francis’ of Assisi feast day 🙂

A graduation celebration spilled out onto the street in front of the Touring Car Italiano building, with the fortunate graduate grinning from ear to ear, having an animated discussions with friends and family, wearing a celebratory wreath of green leaves intricately weaved with red and white flowers.

A leisurely lunch @ Cantine Milano, with a 3 course wine and food pairing. Yummy! In particular, the meatballs with sausage/beef/cheese on saffron potato cream and lemon-marinated red cabbage… and risotto Milanese. I’m also developing a taste for Valpolicella Ripasso, a dry deliciously fruity red wine from Verona..

I headed to the rooftop of the flagship store La Rinascente to enjoy the panorama of the Duomo….queues galore for the bars and restaurants on the terrace. So I sneaked through when a waiter wasn’t looking, made a beeline for the glass panels surrounding the terrace, and on tippee-toe…managed to get this image at sunset.

The Duomo of Milan beckons. Bought a ‘skip the queue’ elevator ticket online for 10am, and still had to wait in line…but just a short 5 mins. Firstly to explore the ‘Terraces’ on the top of the Cathedral, a unique landmark – like stalagmites made of stone, spires carved from Candoglia marble soar towards the sky.

There are over 3,400 statues, 135 richly ornate (17 metre) spires, 150 gargoyles, along with flying buttresses,  with a silent population of saints and martyrs watching over the Duomo.

On the very top, the statue depicting the ‘Assumption of the Virgin in Heaven’, the Madonnina, made of 33 copper plates and 6750 sheets of pure gold covering the copper.

A clock and two statues reclining on a Milanese building opposite the Duomo…called ‘Day and Night’.

It’s Milan beauty week, so long queues of young people in the Piazza wanting free cosmetic samples.

The Cathedral itself tells a story of art and faith spanning six centuries! Work for its construction began in 1386 with the Lord of Milan, Gian Galeazzo Visconti, deciding to use Candoglia marble instead of the traditional Lombardy brick. Engineers, architects, sculptors and stone cutters were sought for the project from all over Europe. Construction began from the apse, with its awesome and imposing stained-glass windows. The spire with the Madonnina was only completed in 1774.

A statue in the Cathedral caught my attention from afar, because of its presence, the way the lighting illuminates it…with incredible over-defined veins, arteries, tendons, muscles, it hovers staring into the distance. His gaze is commanding. Its St Bartholomew, one of the 12 apostles in the 1stC who (according to one Christian account – there are others) was flayed alive and then beheaded. He wears his flesh as it’s almost a drape. His right hand holds both his hide (the skin of the fingers dangling like an ornamental fringe) and the knife which flayed him. Its grizzly, hideous yet arresting at the same time. What could he have possibly done to get that punishment? …..evangelised in Armenia and converted the King to Christianity. The King’s brother was none too pleased apparently, fearing a backlash from the Romans and ordered his death. The statue was carved by Marco d’Agrate in 1562.

The main door of the Duomo is memorable, crafted by Ludovico Pogliaghi between 1894 and 1908, themed on ‘stories from the life of Mary’. Here are some features and panels that caught my eye….

And a few hours later, you emerge into daylight and see…..the Piazza, bustling!

And the lunchtime crowd swarming through the Gallerie Vittorio Emanuele II, as gorgeous as it is architecturally…I had to decamp…to lunch @ Giacomo Bistrot.

Ahhhh! That’s better, a gorgeous little bistrot with a 65 year old history, established by Giacomo Bulleri. He later expanded his business to include a number of other bistrots, restaurants and lately, a hotel. Most patrons ate outside (and were smoking)….so I had the interior to myself for a while….

I need to tell you about a dish I ate there…tortelli filled with cacio de pepe, prawns, lime and fish roe – OMG – unbelievably good!