Postcards from Milan

Milan likes to have fun.  On the way to see the Duomo of Milan, my parents and I were weaving through the beautiful streets lined with impossibly tall, incredibly old ornate buildings, the kind you'd see in most major cities in Italy, when we came across clearing and saw a modern sculpture of a hand flipping you off, placed right in the middle of the street.

This is Milan, I thought.  Where Renaissance era architecture rubs right up against modern skyscrapers.  Milan looks as much to the future as it does the past, and better than the places we visit before, Rome, Florence and Venice.

Arriving by train in the gorgeous Milano Centrale railway station.

Lunch. Cheese and tomatoes on focaccia bread, no tomato sauce.

Duomo di Milano - The Milan Cathedral 

Entrance to the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, one of the world's oldest shopping malls.

Milan is a good mix of renaissance and modern.

A touring German group to advertise visiting Thuringia, Germany

Artwork on the enormous doors to the Duomo.

Inside the Galleria.

Leonard da Vinci statue in the Piazza della Scala, close to the Galleria and Duomo.

Santa Maria delle Grazie, church that houses the Last Supper.

Needle and thread sculpture outside the Cardona metro station right by our hotel room.

Sforza Castle.

Coat of arms for the House of Visconti and the Duke of Milan. A viper devouring a human. 

Mom's new whip.

Floor in the hotel in which we were staying. 

This is just a replica of the Last Supper, which actually dominates the entire wall. You can't take pictures of the actual work and tours are limited to 15 minutes at a time in the sealed room because it is so fragile. 

Succulent planters right next to the church housing the Last Supper.

Goodbye for now, Milan!  Goodbye Italy.  I can't wait to come back again.