Il Duomo Florence

Wednesday morning we departed Milan and traveled via train to Florence. After dropping our bags at the hotel, we hit the streets of Florence.  Our first stop, Il Duomo.  The church is beautiful. 

Again, we were blown away by the attention to detail.  Everything was layered and layered in carvings.

 Here, we got over our inhibition of taking pictures inside churches.  I was silent and respectful as I marveled at the beauty, but we did decide to take pictures when allowed.  The artwork inside the dome was incredible.  I'm sure volumes have been published describing the scenes depicted. 

 Part of what was so very striking was the three-dimensional nature of the dome.  Look at the very top part (shown below), the men look as if they are ready to leap from the ceiling into the sanctuary below.

Back outside Il Duomo, we waited our turn to climb to the top of the dome.  Once inside the first section was a series of short runs of stairs with 90 degree turns.  It was a narrow passage with all people walking up.  There was this obnoxious guy behind us who could not stop talking.  His incessant talking was annoying in and of itself.  The fact that he was able to carry on a conversation while walking up the stairs added an entirely different level of frustration to me.  Add in the fact that you just had to keep walking, and I was not happy.

After a certain amount of climbing, you emerge on to the bottom of the painting in the dome above.  Look how tiny everyone is.  Look at the beauty of the floors.  We loved the marble floors in the churches.  One of the neat things is how the different colors of marble have different densities, as evidenced by the uneven wearing of the floors, where centuries of people have tread upon the floors.

Back inside the dome, the ascent continued.  The path became more narrow and winding.  But, the view once we arrived up top was breath-taking.

 It was very windy in the city that day; the wind was increased atop the dome. 

 Check out Dave's hair blowing in the breeze.

 Once atop the dome, I encountered a man on crutches who had climbed up.  I felt bad then for being such a wimp at moments during the climb.

 The view from below.  We were way up there.

There is a tower at Il Duomo that we could have climbed.  Maybe next trip.  The trip where I put vanity aside and bring real walking shoes.  The full day of walking on Tuesday and the climb up Il Duomo did a number on my knees.  On Thursday I started taking Advil for the discomfort.  Getting older can really stink. 

Afternoon Walk Around Milan

Above is the chapel where Da Vinci's Last Supper is located.  Dave and I had reservations to see it on Sunday, but our delay in arrival prohibited seeing it.  I walked by hoping to be able to get in without a reservation, but was unsuccessful in that endeavor.  I did listen to a couple come out and describe it to another couple with whom they were traveling. 

I wandered for a bit with Basilica Sant'Ambrogio being my goal.  I got lost for a bit on the campus of the University of the Sacred Heart. 

I found a sandwich on the most delicious bread and had a lunch in this piazza before roaming for a bit more and finding the Basilica.  As it turns out, I was at the colonne di San Lorenzo; the columns (colonne) are to my back in this picture below.  I didn't take the a picture of the columns--drat.  The columns date back to the 4th century. 

I finally found the Basilica Sant'Ambrogio, which dates back to 385, but the current structure was built begun in 1080 and completed in 1128. No photographs were allowed inside, so I have these two exterior shots.

 

After all my walking, I was tired, so I rode the subway to the piazza Il Duomo, had a gelato while I watched people.  I rode the subway back to the Milano Centrale train station, seen below, and walked the 2 blocks to the hotel.  After resting for a bit, I headed out for dinner--a delicious pizza with left overs for Dave and a yummy salad.  Dave returned from Geneva around 11 that night.  We called it a night and started packing for our trip to Florence the following day.

A Walk in the Park

After emerging from the castle, I was greeted by Sempione Park.  It was a beautiful day, and I had no agenda, so I wandered through the park to get a look at the gate on the opposite end. 

Arco della Pace

It turns out the gate is called the Arco della Pace, or Arch of Peace.  The arch was begun in 1807 while Milan was under Napoleon's rule and finally finished in 1838. 

Here is a look from the Arch back over the park to the castle.

The attention to detail with the arch was, as all architecture in Italy, exquisite. 

Even the underside of the arch was adorned with carved flowers.

Castello Sforzesco

Tuesday, Dave traveled to Geneva by train to visit Alcon.  Instead of spending $250 on a roundtrip train ticket, I decided to explore the city.  Dave left early; I took the opportunity to sleep in.  I finally got up around 10, had a Cliff Bar and a Coca Cola Light (not at all as tasty as a Diet Coke), and hit the city to explore.

My first stop was Castello Sfrozesco.  I rode the Metro and walked right to the castle.  I approached from the side, but did walk around front to see the fountain and the statue across the way in front of the castle.

The castle dates back to the late 1300s and Galeazzo II Visconti.  Then in 1450 it was transformed into a ducal residence by Francesco Sforza. After serving as military barracks for various groups, the castle was turned over to the city in the late 1800s and is used as a venue for various cultural events.  The castle was damaged by WWII bombings in 1943, but has been restored.

The fountain is described as the most beautiful in Milan.

Giuseppe Garabali Monument in front of Castello Sforzesco

Piazza del Armi inside the castle

Ducal Courtyard

Moat around the castle walls

Il Duomo Milan

After we made it to Milan, we caught the train and rode into the Centrale train station, then walked a few blocks to our hotel.  After learning that you have to put the card for your door in a reader on the wall to have the lights turn on, we unpacked a bit, took showers, then headed out to the city center to see a few sights, have lunch, and meet Dave's class on the steps of Il Duomo for his second company meeting.

Dave and I were struck each place that we visited by the attention to detail and the age of the buildings.  We were also saddened by all of the graffiti we saw.

Each city's principal church is called "Il Duomo."  Milan's Duomo is impressive.  A concert was being held in the piazza at the church.

After a lunch in a restaurant in the Galleria adjacent to the Duomo, we walked through the Duomo before Dave met up with his class.  I chatted with a few of the girls as the group walked through the city to Hotel Bosco for a company visit.  While they toured the hotel, I did a bit of shopping.  There were many stores in Milan that are found in the US (H&M, Timberland, Dolce & Gabbana, Coach), but the most interesting store I went into was a department store.  It was at least 8 stories.  The first floor was home to cosmetic counters, very similar to what you see in the US.  The second floor was home to purses.  Each designer had a "store" that opened onto the square that housed the escalators.  The clothing was the same way.  There would be a "store" area that housed all of the clothes by that designer.  There was a floor with home goods; the top floor housed a restaurant and specialty foods. 

After window shopping a bit, I headed back to the piazza at Il Duomo, where I purchased my first of many cups of gelato to eat while I waited for Dave to finish his work.

Back at the hotel, we took a quick power nap then wandered down to the lobby, where we met other students from TCU.  We joined them for a tram ride down to a canal area of the city.  Once there, we chose a Greek restaurant for dinner.  The owner was very accommodating of our group of ten.  He spoke no English.  He did bring us a menu written in English so we could order.  He had one kind of beer in stock, Vergina, so we drank this Greek lager with our dolmathes and roasted lamb skewers.  Afterwards, we had another gelato for dessert!

Even the doors are intricately carved.

We're Back

From atop the Duomo in Florence

We used our passports and traveled to Italy this month.  The occasion? One of Dave's graduate classes.  I was lucky enough to get to tag along, and we were both lucky enough for the grandmas to agree to come to Texas to watch Gavin while we traveled.

We had a bit of an issue getting out, since yours truly decided that about 100 feet from the gate was the perfect place and time to have a fainting spell.  I was taken from the airplane, which was already 3 hours delayed due to weather.  We went to the ER; I was checked out.  Nothing wrong.  We were able to get rebooked and left on Sunday.  We had to fly into Laguardia and take a cab to JFK before heading across the Atlantic to Milan.

Dave missed his first company visit and his Italian language quiz.  We both missed seeing The Last Supper; I had purchased tickets in advance.  Oh well.  We made it.  We had a great time.  We saw lots.  We missed Gavin.

I'll work on getting posts up.

 

At Ponte Vecchio in Florence

Zoo

On Good Friday, Gavin and I went to the zoo.  I uploaded pictures at some point, but never added a story.  I just found this when I started working on posts from our trip to Italy.  Ooopsie.

Gavin and I had a fun trip--just the two of us.  Since it was just us, I allowed him to look at each animal as long as he wanted to before moving on to see another animal.  

One of Gavin's favorite was the bear because he was pacing back and forth.  

You can't go wrong with an Icee on a warm day.  Since we packed our lunch, we had an Icee and some blue cotton candy.  Gavin didn't know what to call the cotton candy when he spotted it, so he asked for "some of that blue messy stuff."  An apt description.

 

As much as Gavin enjoyed watching the bear, by far his favorite spot was this aquarium.  

The weather is warming up, so we'll wait until fall for our next Mama-Gavin date at the zoo.

This is What Happens When Dave Take Gavin to School

TCU Baseball Game

We had planning on going to see the Rangers play last weekend, but they were sold out and tickets were going for way more than we were willing to pay.  So we did the next best thing - we went to watch TCU play baseball.  It was fun, and cheap too.  Tickets were $8 for Miranda and Gavin, and I got in free since I am a student.  

 Miranda and I decided that TCU has the cutest and smallest bat boy in existence.

We had fun, Gavin watched the game for a little while, and then he got bored and wanted to walk around.  He quickly spied a grassy hill where all the kids were playing.  The kids were sliding down the hill on cardboard.  Gavin tried to do the same a few times, but couldn't figure out how to hold onto the cardboard long enough to get a good slide.  So instead he rolled down the hill and was just overall very silly.

 G was one tire little squirt on the drive home.  He had his eyes closed and was still stuffing popcorn into his mount for several minutes.