Home » Italy » Off To See Nat!!!

Whilst waiting at the airport I got a message from Nat saying she was delayed by 1.5hrs… but that’s the way it goes with us!! Nat had set about planning it perfectly so that our flights coincided with each other, but alas it wasn’t to be!! After checking through and a long wait and a relatively short flight, I finally arrived in Milan where it was raining, glad I had taken out all my long sleeve item after checking the weather in Milan for the last few weeks!!! Argh!!!

It took over an hour for my bag to appear at baggage claim. I was dying of thirst and there was no where to get a drink…

Off To See Nat!!!

Tav
2006-10-23 14:07:05

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was scaffolding out the front!! Ah well, tried your best!! The did a bag check on the way in and then we were free to use camera and videos to capture the beauty of the inside, although photography can prove a little difficult with the only light provided through the extraordinary lead light windows. Art adorns the aisle way on both sides, suspended from the ceiling.

After checking out the inside we climbed the stairs (figured I deserved that after last night’s dinner!) to the top of the building and you can check out the landscape of the city… it’s not exactly what I’d call a beautiful city.

The detail in the building is just extraordinary!! Well worth the look! It has more than 2,000 sculptures and numberless spires and capitals. On the way back down after being careful on the slippery surface in thongs!! And after a few close calls I finally slipped over… good thing not too many people saw!!! Hehe!!

The Dumo is referred to as Milan’s symbol and religious heart

Now for a bit of history people… (you knew I had to do it at some stage!)

Building of the Dumo began in 1386 on a site which had long been the centre of the cities religious fabric.

3 basilicas had previously been erected Vetus in the 3rd century AD, S Tecla in the 4th and S Maria Maggiore in the 9th. Built alongside was the baptistery of S Giovanni alle Fonti, constructed in 378 AD by St Ambrose who baptised St Augustine. The original design was going to be brick-built Lombardy gothic. But within a year the project was revolutionalised by Gian Galeazzo Visconti, who wanted to create a symbol for the city more resonate of the great European powers than of the small Italian dukedoms. The design took on the soaring form of the great northern cathedrals, whilst the chosen stone was of pink marble of Candoglia, in Val d’Ossola. Craftsmen from across Europe arrived, from the Rhine, Bohemia, Burgundy, and their innovative approach was combined with the great traditions and skill of the Lombard master-builders.

For years, the Dumo was an extraordinary cultural crossroads, which in turn went on to influence the
rest of Europe.

Another fundamental moment in the Dumo’s history occurred in the 17th century. The prodastant movement had sweep through the very country that had produced the gothic style. Archbishop S Carlo Borromeo order Pellegrino Pellegrini to redesign the cathedral using the typical baroque forms common in Rome, a very visible way of making explicit Milan’s loyalty to the Pope and the catholic church.

On S Carlo’s death, however, the coherence of the original project prevailed. The main square was finished in 1774: on top is the Madonnina, 33 copper plates covered in gold, which soon became Milan’s symbol.

History lesson has now ended!!