Milan Milano

I usually travel through Milano when going to Bergamo airport, but I have never explored the city. Mother and I arrived in the morning, and successfully got into a fight again because she thought I was getting us lost. After harassing a couple of stranger, mom once again admitted defeat and we found our bus.
After checking in at Timbucktu Inn (Just kidding! It was "Hotel Majorca" which is a bus ride away from the centre) we decided to check out the biggest Cathedral in Italy and have a cappuccino while doing so.
We took a bus back to the town centre and oh just so happened to stumble into Guess and try on half of their collection... Since we were planning on going Outlet Shopping the next day, we didn't buy anything. Neither me nor my mom had a sufficient meal that day so we started searching for a decent bar (local word for coffee bar) with fresh pasteries and cappuccinos without extraterrestrial prices.
It was harder than we imaged after we wasted another 40-something minutes on it and succumbed to one that turned out pretty decent. We ran into a similar problem when we were looking for breakfast around the main bus station. Hard to beat Bologna with that, really. More about that in the Bar post.

The great Milano Duomo

Eventually this glorious thing appeared. The pointy Gothic architecture is intricately decorated with lacy, marble statues of saints, angels and demons on every corner and protrusion.
Entrance is free (as it is most churches in Italy, but places like Pisa may charge), excluding a swift security scan. When we went in there was a service being preformed, since I'm from the Godless Communist State I know little about religions in general and less so about Catholicism. It wasn't Sunday mass because it was small and after lunch and it was not Sunday.

Smoke from a service that was happening at the time.

The most mesmerising thing about the building is the gigantic stained glass installation and white-marble sarcophagi built into the floor annotating every date and owner. This is common in many places in Italy.
The smell of myrrh and all the pretty glass had me distracted...

One of the many stained glass windows.

Until my mother pointed out this fella...

preserved archbishop 1

At first glance you don't even realise these are actual corpses. Italian Catholic love of the macabre sure send the point home when you see the withered skin on the statues' hands and loose, wisps of white hair on grey-brown skin under the silver death mask. As I was leaning in to take some photos I overheard some American tourist complaining that such things should not be displayed to the public and smiled to myself thinking they're new here.

preserved archbishop 2... See the hands?

Milan is a city well-balanced in it's Italian-ism and International-ism. It's very modern, but very aesthetic in it's Italian ways. Fashion models roam the streets like safari animals and business men argue over espressos during coffee breaks. It's an inspiring environment.