The second full day on our recent Italian Adventure found us heading to Milan for a day of walking and sightseeing.

Milan Castle

Boo had a work colleague based near to Milan who had offered to show us around. We gratefully took up her offer and so we popped onto an early train to meet her in the City.

The Castle Battlements

Jo was waiting at the station for us and we started our walking tour with a visit to Milan Castle. Walking over the massive drawbridge set the visit off to a good start.

The City Well

I happily snapped away with my camera whilst Jo and Boo caught up on life in general. We ambled around the interior of the main area and took a few selfies too.

The Duomo

Moving on, we headed down towards the Duomo. This was something I was really looking forward to as I had read quite a lot about the construction of the Cathedral.

The Interior

The Duomo is the second largest Cathedral in the World and is a Catholic place of worship. The building was started in 1386 and is undergoing renovations at the moment.

Golden Glory

There are multiple complex spires at the front of the building and hundreds of statues on the rooftops. Add to that gargoyles and grotesques and you have a pretty amazing structure.

Stunning Marble Floors

Boo and Jo went off to get tickets as you can enter into the Cathedral as well as go up to the rooftop!

Wonderful Interior

Thankfully (or so I thought) there was a lift to get to the top so we were set on doing both.

The Roof of the Duomo

Firstly we went inside the building which is dedicated to the Nativity of St Mary and can hold up to 40,000 worshippers. It really is a gigantic, beautiful building.

The Duomo Rooftop

The Duomo took over six centuries to finish, finally being officially opened in 1965 and immediately went straight back to needing renovations. The spires have suffered environmental damage and parts of the structure had scaffolding over it.

Gargoyles and Grotesques

This didn’t really bother us as the inside and outside of the Duomo are absolutely stunning.

Saintly Statues

As many of you may know, I always light a candle when in religious buildings for those who have passed and the Duomo was no different.

A Row of Spires

Saying prayers for the dead and blessings for those living has always been important to me and this time it was even more poignant as there were a couple of people who were suffering from serious ill health that I wanted to pray for.

Grotesque?

We took our time wandering around inside, looking at the different chapels and dedications before exiting the Duomo to join the queue for the rooftop experience.

Skyline of Spires

Now you CAN walk up the steps to get to the top, however we chose the lift option as with my knee I would never manage it.

Royal Rows

Going up in the lift was absolutely fine. Getting out onto the roof of the Duomo was like entering a magical world. The statues and spires were awe-inspiring and I couldn’t resist taking shot after shot.

Beautiful Designs

It was also a perfect opportunity to try the fancy settings on my lens and get some shots that I hoped would be worthy.

Perfect Panorama

We walked along the preset route and it became apparent that it was one-way only. This wasn’t an issue to start with however things became a bit trickier when faced with a set of stairs that were a couple of floors worth.

I took it as slowly as I could but I was absolutely in agony by the time I got to the top. My knee was throbbing and I could barely walk.

Jo and Boo insisted that I took a breather and we sat and admired the architecture. It really was worth the pain to see the skyline of Milan, dominated by the spires and religious decor.

Amazing Architecture

I was completely dazzled by the wonderful and somewhat bizarre carvings. Animals, people, shapes and even weird little creatures abounded and I kept snapping away.

Silent Sentinels

Finally it was time to come down and this was when I found out that the route we had taken led to the staircases, not the lifts. This only became apparent when the steps carried on and on, and there was no way to turn around.

Breathtaking

I had a severe case of jelly legs by the time we got to the bottom but I was still glad that we had opted to do it as I got some amazing photographs that I will treasure.

Spectacular Sights

Jo had to leave us at this point however gave us directions to a restaurant that served a kind of Italian version of tapas.

Immortal Icons

The restaurant ‘Antica Focacceria San Francisco‘ was only a short walk and we got a table for two outside. The menu was quite considerable so Boo and I decided to get a mix of items to share.

Italian Snacks

The speciality of the place was a ‘roll’ that was popular with workers. I have to admit to being very squeamish and initially decided there was no way in hell I was going to order it, but I do try and eat authentic meals when abroad as I feel it gives a much better experience.

So, when the waiter arrived we ordered our choices and I threw in the speciality at the last minute.

In this case it was lung and spleen of a cow cooked slowly and presented in a sesame seed bun with cheese shavings.

Lung and Spleen in A Roll

Thankfully we added mixed arancinette, stuffed rice balls that are fried to a golden hue. Chickpea flour parcels, potato fritters, bechamel croquettes as well as some local bread.

The spleen and lung came on a mixed plate with two other rolls, one just plain cheese and the other filled with a chickpea flour parcel.

Selfie Time

I have to admit that the spleen and lung wasn’t unpleasant, just a little bland in my opinion and as there were much tastier things on my plate, I only ate half of the roll.

The croquettes and arancinette were absolute amazing and really filled a gap.

We finished off the meal sharing a Cannoli that was filled with smooth ricotta and lemon. It was divine!

Cannoli

We sat chatting and relaxing whilst enjoying the food and deciding what we were going to do for the rest of the afternoon.

Firstly we headed back to the main piazza to have a wander through their shopping arcade. It was literally like something out of a palace.

The Shopping Arcade

The sheer glamorousness AND decor was mind blowing and so were most of the shops inside. I would probably have needed to remortgage my house to buy anything inside the Galleria.

Stunning Artwork

We then made our way to the tram stop. Milan has some brilliant new trams but also has some old vintage wooden style trams which Boo was keen to find.

Tram Time

First of all we had to use one of the more modern versions, but eventually spotted an old tram and hopped onto that line to take a journey around the city.

Vintage Tram

We literally rode the tram to the end of the line and then came back to the centre. It really was a beautiful old thing, with wonderful vintage lighting.

Tram Selfie

Sadly my knee was really paining me and Boo made a suggestion of getting an earlier train back. I was all for it as walking was becoming very difficult.

What A Place to Live!

We got back to the train station and found a lovely gelateria where Boo and I got a huge tub of ice cream; mine was a creamy custard/vanilla flavour and Boo went for Mango.

Views From The Tram

Our train had just come into the station so we took our ice cream with us which was rapidly starting to melt.

Gelato Time

We had tickets booked and reserved seats. These were sharing with a couple of other travellers, but I genuinely didn’t care as it meant I could rest my leg, eat my gelato and read some more of my book.

Bit of a bonus all round!

The Train Station

We grabbed a taxi at the train station for the 6 minute drive to the hotel. I have to admit to being quite relieved when I got back into our hotel room.

Thankfully tomorrow was going to be a little more relaxing as we were staying closer to home and exploring Bologna.

Till next time,

SPSG xxx