Milan

Ok, I'm feeling motivated.  We're going to do a blitz on the Italy trip... if you're attempting to track our schedule, here's a refresher... I was in the states for three weeks, Brian for one and a half, and two days after I returned from the US, we headed to Italy to meet up with Rich & Kay for a week of exploring.  This trip was 2 weeks before our Prague trip that you recently checked out here.  This fall is a big travel time for us - originally we thought we might have to leave at Christmas (which is no longer the case) so we wanted to squeeze in as much travel as we could before we headed back to the states.

So, onto Italy.  Our first stop was in Milan, and we were only there for about 6 hours before hopping on a train to Lake Como.  We didn't do any shopping, and I guess we missed out on the international fashion scene, which I'm sure Brian was okay with.

 As with all major European cities, the Cathedral is center.  This one was gorgeous.  Here's an excerpt from my Architectural Registration Exams (Kaplan) History study book:
The overelaborate splendor of the exterior gave it the name Church of a Hundred Spires. It was a mass of white carved marble with flying buttresses, traceried windows, pinnacles, and ultimately over 6,000 individual sculptures. Its lacy appearance has been described as petrified fireworks.

 Architects used light to represent the presence of God.

 This is the Victor Emmanuel Galleria, I think I also read somewhere in my study books that it was the first "covered shopping mall" in 1865.  The iron & glass interior ceiling was beautiful.

Supposedly if you put your heel on the bull's bits and spin, you'll have good luck.  Obviously a lot of people wanted good luck here, including this girl, who took a spin...