Milano round two

Since the first time I went to Milano I knew I would return one day. That day was today ! I woke up early and took the train from Bergamo to Milano Centrale. I was looking forward to spending a day exploring and looking around this enormous city. I had plans of re-visiting Santa Maria Della Grazie, but after doing some research I found out that you have to buy tickets in advance, way in advance. So with that being said I decided to return the the incredible Santa Maria Nascente or the Duomo di Milano.





Even though I've already seen this church it still made me stop, sit and stare. After recovering I walked inside and took a couple of photos, then I went to buy my tickets to climb the stairs up to the very top of the Duomo ! Obviously this building is huge so it took a while to climb the stairs,but when I got there it was well worth the time and effort. The city is so beautiful and it felt so relaxing to be so high up on such an important building. I sat and wrote in my journal and took a bunch of photos.





After hanging out on the roof of the Duomo enjoying the view I decided to walk around a bit. I did some research the night before and found out Pinacoteca Di Brera was not too far from the Duomo. I made my way and found some beautiful smaller churches as well as a well supplied art store (I bought an awesome sketchbook which I'll write about at a later time).











In my opinion this small museum or collection has pound for pound one of the best and most important paintings I've seen in one shot. In this collection was Andrea Mantegna's Cristo Morto, Rafaello's Spozati Della Vergine, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio's Cena in Emaus, also paintings by Ludovico Caracci, Guido Reni, Jusepe de Rinera's beautiful San Girolemo Penitente and a nice selection of paintings from the Italian movement of the mid 19th century the Machiaioli. I enjoyed this collection very much and the staff at the museum were incredibly helpful and polite. I will return to both the Duomo and Pinacoteca Di Brera on my next visit, which will hopefully also include a visit to Santa Maria Della Grazie.





Before I forget obviously there are many more beautiful places in Milano like the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, where all the high end clothing stores are and one of my favorite buildings in Milano, the Teatro alla Scala.





Teatro alla Scala is a very important and historical opera house. The architecture is nice and clean. The opera house is positioned directly behind the Galleria with a nice Piazza in front of it. There are several museums and art galleries in that same area of Milano that I still have to visit as well. This trip to Milano was much nicer than the last one, hopefully the third is even better.


-R