Random and Spontaneous

I have said this before and I will say it again. One of the greatest things about my time here thus far is that I am free from commitments other than at the moment to learn as much German as possible. So when my best friend calls up to tell me she is unexpectedly coming to Italy for the week and would I like to join her for the weekend, it is possible to say yes! So Friday, I boarded the train and headed to Milan, Italy for the weekend.


The train ride through the Swiss Alps was slow, but beautiful as we passed by several small alpine towns and several alpine lakes. And I now understand why so much water is advertised as being Swiss water as there were gushing waterfalls coming out of the sides of the mountain everywhere. Given that the train had no air conditioning and it was excessively hot on board, they looked quite refreshing.



Our day began Saturday, with the best cappuccino I've ever had. And being one who doesn't like cappuccino, that is saying a lot. When you travel your day seems to be centered around food, so appropriately our first destination was the church in which DaVinci's Last Supper is housed. Unfortunately we were unsuccessful in getting tickets and had to suffice to buying a postcard. Maybe we looked too Protestant in this Catholic city to be given privilege to seeing the masterpiece portraying the all important night in which the words, "do this in remembrance of me" were uttered. We were, however, able to walk around the church in which it is housed. After a brief mourning session we walked on towards the Church of St. Ambrose only to find that it was closed until the middle of the month. So onward we walked to the oldest church in the city, dating back to the 4th century. Upon our arrival, a wedding was going on in the church. Once again, we were denied access! The above picture is of the backside of the church. And while we weren't able to go in and explore, it was pretty awesome to see the outside and get a sense of the 4th century Lombard architecture.

From the oldest church in the city we headed to the Duomo Milano, the 4th largest cathedral in the world (megachurch's have been around for a while!) and honestly nothing could have prepared me for its grandeur.

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The architectural design in and of itself was stunning and overwhelming. It's pretty amazing to think how much money has gone into building the cathedral and that it was built using technology from the 13th - 18th centuries. Unfortunately, since I had to take pictures without the flash I had a difficult time keeping my hand steady enough to get any good pictures.

Certainly a highlight of the visit to the Duomo Milano was a visit to the baptistery that was in the original Basilica underneath the Duomo. The Basilica also dates to the 4th century as the other churches we were unsuccessful in seeing and is attributed to being the seat of St. Ambrose. Perhaps I stood in the very church in which Augustine was influenced and saw the very baptistery in which he was baptised in!

Our trip through Milan wouldn't have been complete without a walk through the Galleria, just to get a touch of fashion. As measly tourists we felt quite out of place standing next to the Prada and Armani stores.

On Sunday I had a few hours to explore Milan on my own and so I headed to a local museum to explore the ancient artifacts that it housed, attributing many pieces to the 4th century, which was very interesting. The castle in which the museum was housed also had ceilings painted by DaVinci and it housed the above Michelangelo Pieta Rondanini, thought to be the last piece that Michelangelo was working on when he died.