Travel with Manfred

Travelogues from around the world

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Copyright © 2003 by Manfred P.. All rights reserved.

Dec 9-11, 2003

From Michelangelo to da Vinci

Christmas Preparation in Milan

by

Manfred P.

Keywords: Italy, Milan, tourist, travel trip report, travel log, travelogue.

It is mid-December and Milan does not leave you any option but to fall into the Christmas spirit. Especially at night. Many of the streets in the center are nicely and tastefully decorated with Christmas lights. It made my heart feel warm as I wandered through the alleys at night, when it was cold and raining. These lights, tiny and white, had their special effect on me. I especially remember strolling down Via Monte Napoleone and how the 1,000s of small light bulbs turned the rainy night into a warm, welcoming evening.

The next morning there was snow on the ground. It was not a lot, less than half an inch and within a few hours it had disappeared again. Still, for the couple of hours that it lasted, it was nice. It was the first snow of the season and it was a fitting weather for the pre-Christmas time.

But not only visually the Christmas time was closing in, also acoustically. By pure chance I strolled by San Maria de Grazie when pleasant tones sounded from the inside. I stepped inside and found a choir in its preparations for a big concert, practicing traditional Christmas carols. How fitting, the weather, the lights and the Christmas carols.

The top sights in Milan are the Cathedral, the Gallery of Vittorio Emanuele II and the opera Scala. No doubt that any tourist in Milan will visit these sites. The Cathedral is impressive because its large number of decorative roof towers. It's the roof that makes the cathedral. The opera house Scala is simple and plain from the outside. It never grabbed my attention. The real jewel is in the inside which I never saw. The Vittorio Emanuele II Gallery is the architectural feature I best remember from previous visits to Milan. This time around I got a kick out of finding "noble" brands like Mercedes and "bourgeois" food outlets like McDonalds right next to each other in the glitzy Galleries. The Mercedes boutique sells to clients with a thick wallet and the need for upscale representation about anything from socks, to pens, briefcases and whatever else you can come up with at absurd astronomical prices. Foolish me, I thought they only sell cars and trucks. A few yards away, the middle class family with two kids can eat at the McDonalds a full lunch for the same price as a Mercedes paper clip. Okay, I am exaggerating, but you get the idea.

Not as popular in Milan as in Florence is the architecture centered on the idea of using black-and-white stripes of marble. Still, you can find this typical Italian architectural feature in Milan as well. Check out the Sant' Eufemia church. These black-and-white striped walls remotely reminded me of the brown-and-white striped arcs in the Cathedral in Cordoba. I doubt that these two architectures have anything in common, but somehow I had to think of the latter when seeing the first. Sant' Eufemia is a beautiful church: small, with the walls in the before mentioned horizontal black-and-white stripes and crowned by a painted ceiling representing a gorgeous night sky. A lovely hue of blue is used for the sky and the golden stars form a perfect contrast. The result is an inviting night sky, a heavenly canopy. You want to see a more modern example of black-and-white striped marble? Have a look at the restrooms by the north-western exit in the Sforza Castle. The modern toilet walls are decorated in black-and-white marble.

If you are admirer of paintings, frescos and sculptures, Milan is a treasure chest. Works from about every famous Italian renaissance artist can be found here. In first line is the famous "Last Supper" fresco from Leonardo da Vinci. Michelangelo's statue of "Pieta Rondanini" is in the Sforza Castle. Just meters from this pieta is da Vinci's ceiling fresco "Sala delle Asse". In the arts sector "The Last Supper" is competing with the exposition in the Sforza Castle. This is a good example of demand and supply. Everybody wants to see the Last Supper. Hence the entrance price is high, you will have to wait hours (if not sold out) to be able to enter the hall holding the fresco (used as a stable under Napoleon); and once inside you have less than 15 minutes before you are shoved out the exit. On the other hand, the Sforza Castle has 100s if not a thousand pieces of art, it is free and you have all time of the world to see and enjoy them. And there is no wait and no crowds. In fact there are fewer visitors than museum guards.

Another item that left a noteworthy impression in the tourist portion of my brain is the presence of old tramways or streetcars. These cars are from the 1950s, and despite of 50 years of use, they are still running strong. You can hear them screeching from far. The amazing part is that the old-timers share the same tracks with brand-new futuristic looking streetcars. You might be standing at a street corner and a neon-green colored utopian streetcar zooms by with a smooth sound, and just 2 minutes later an orange, pre- historic-looking old-timer rumbles by in the very same tracks. I love these old tramways and I hope they keep them for the years coming.

Talking about transport. Have you ever seen a convertible scooter? You read correctly, a motorcycle scooter with a detachable roof. The scooter has a permanent windshield and behind the seat is a horizontal trunk. The roof folds into two parts and when not used can be stored in the trunk. Amazing, isn't it?

What will the Italians come up with next? First pizza and now convertible scooters!