Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Adventures at Duomo

I spent a few hours wandering around the city center of Milan, location of the fourth largest church in the world, the Duomo di Milano.  It's always crawling with people and pigeons, and it's located in the heart of Milan; which mean's you'll be walking around shopping or getting dinner or looking for a cab, then you'll round a corner and bam: Duomo.

Blog readers, meet Duomo:

 




The area around Duomo is very old, and very popular with tourists.
 
  

 



More shots of the area surrounding Duomo.
  



One of the blocks adjacent to Duomo is the home of  the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II.  It's a very fancy, very old, sort-of-indoor mall.  If you've ever shopped somewhere called a "galleria," it was named after this place.

  

  

  
Piazza del Duomo is a very popular photo op.  Dodging photos is an integral part of the Duomo experience.

  
 
 


 


The architecture of Duomo is amazing.  It took over 500 years to build, (1386 - 1965) so please forgive the insane number of photos I am about to post.  I couldn't help myself.





 

  

 

 

  

 




 

 

 



 

 

  

  

 


Wish you were here. 


<3,
Beth

4 comments:

  1. the 'galleria' is what i was trying to think of earlier while skype-ing. heart!

    breathtaking photos, my darling.

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  2. talk about an intricate design. could you tell that different parts of the cathedral were built in different time periods?

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  3. in all my life i have never seen anything like that, beth. i'm just stunned. the eye can not take it all in.

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  4. I couldn't tell that it was constructed over such a long period of time, but the size and level of detail is just so fantastic that I find it hard to comprehend it all at once. I haven't been inside yet, or on the roof, both of which you can do. There is also a lot of symbolism and story to all of the figures covering the building and doors, I really need to learn more about it while I'm here.... I'll report back when I have more information. :)

    Mom! You can see it when you come visit. :) :) :)

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