Milan! Famous for it's cathedral, expensive shops and skilled pickpocketers. I was submitted to Milan for my Athens Programme - it's like a one week erasmus, where you go to a university in a different country and participate in a short course there. When we were off uni we did some sightseeing on our own or participated in tours organised by ESN (Erasmus Student Network).
We didn't see that much, though, apart from the necessities. This was partially because we dedicated our days off to Bergamo and Como, and for Milan we had bad luck in the terms of weather. During the course we had activities on campus from 9 A.M. to 7 P.M. so there wasn't much left to sightsee then.
But, all in all, after one week in Milan we did see something!
The first encounter with Milan we had on the day we went to Como, we took a walk from Central Station to Porta Garibaldi Station. It was a two-metro-station distance within the modern part of Milan. I had to admit, it felt strange to be in Italy and walk between scyscrapers instead of narrow alleys. Modern architecture of Milan is actually really good, though.
The next day we planned to see the Cathedral, Vittorio Emanuele Galleries and a couple of other important things in the centre. The weather was just awful. The rain was so heavy, people were queueing to get inside the Galleries just to shelter from the pouring rain.
Duomo (the cathedral) did look splendid even in these nasty conditions. Towering over a sea of umbellas that belonged to tourists who were stubborn enough to wait in the queues to get inside despite the rain.
Duomo and Vittorio Emanuele Galleries are both located by a large square. It is the most representative part of Milan and it's overflowing with people, from early morning to late night. At one point the rain got so heavy that we fled to Museo Del Novecento - modern art gallery that was also on that square. That was a fine idea. I would expect it to be overcrowded on a rainy day like this, but apparently many people weren't aware of its existence. To our delight, students were granted free entrance. There was a viewing terrace within the building facing the cathedral square, so we had a chance of seeing the area from above.
Then we went to Politecnico di Milano, our university-for-a-week.
The following day we visited a place that made a great impression on me, the Monumental Cemetary. I wasn't really excited about going there, but I have completely changed my mind afterwards. It had an impressive main memorial chapel being a gateway to the cemetary itself.
We spent over an hour walking through the alleys of the cemetary because it was so abundant in monumental tombs and fantastic sculptures of angels, religious figures or ordinary people. The latter really caught my attention, I am very fond of taking photos of sculptures and they were so full of emotions and lifelike. And I liked it even more because of the respectful atmosphere and as it wasn't a museum you could walk around them at will, in silence, without any guards surveiling your every move.
Next we headed off to Corso Como for a quick look, then joined ESN group on a tour around the district near Porta Garibaldi.
Here are some shots from the uni and the road we walked everyday from our rented flat. The area near Politecnico weren't really sublime, but it did have its italian charm in it. The university campus reminded me of our Warsaw University of Technology campus a bit, both are in a relatively similar architectural style. Only that in Milan, there are palm trees and more facilities.
Back to the main square, but this time in a proper weather! After our classes ended we finally had an opportunity to see Milan in the sun. We did a few walks starting from Duomo, through Vittorio Emanuele Galleries to Brema district.
On the last day we finally decided to sacrifice a few hours and wait in the queue to enter Duomo. It took literally over two hours of waiting to buy tickets and to pass the security control by the entrance... And we weren't even allowed to ascend the viewing terrace on the cathedral, because it was supposedly so crowded, that the ticketing office stopped selling entry tickets for a few hours. We weren't too fortunate, were we?
But the interior of the cathedral was rewarding. So vast, it's probably the largest cathedral i've been to recently (excluding St. Peter's in Vatican).
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