Milano, and I don't mean the cookies:

A week or two into my stay in Milan, I finally made my way to the historic district. This is the Milan of the postcards, where every building around you is beautiful, old, and impressive (much like Madrid).

Silvia and I started our adventure at the only reasonable place: Il Duomo.

Duomo, Italian for cathedral, is the simple name given to some towns' main (read: biggest) church (Florence's also goes by this same epithet, whereas Venice's gets "Basilica San Marco" and Rome's gets "St. Peter's Basilica"). Milano's Duomo is indeed grand, it was incredible to actually see it's facade this time around (when I was here with family in 2004, the entire front was covered in scaffolding).

(Now there's just the bit of repair work being done up top)

We went inside, and I don't think enough people were live in 1386 to fill the expanse of marble-y glory. [It's not a very good photo, sorry. I wasn't sure if cameras were allowed...]

We then paid money to climb a zillion stairs to the roof.
[Have I mentioned that I haven't been running much? 
Well, I haven't been running much, so yeah, a zillion stairs.]

 Wait, did I say we paid money? I meant we scaled the wall in secret,
and shall henceforth be referred to as Elite Humans.

 Art history folks say this cathedral has a Gothic influence. 

If Gothic means Fancy, I'll take their word for it.

(Good thing my camera decided to focus on the protective fence, eh?)

 Atop every spire stands a person. Datssum goooood balance.

 The clocktower-looking thing is a castle. More on that in a bit.

 That arch marks an entrance to the Galleria...

 This is a picture of Man, and an ugly skyscraper.

 

 Look! I didn't steal these pictures from the internet!

Note the Alps in the background. I'm sorry they didn't come out all that clear, but trust me, it's a pretty sweet view. [Feel free to take this time to scroll back to some of the other pictures to look for 'em. I'll wait for you to fininsh.]

So then we walked through the Galleria (past that archway I pointed out earlier)...

...and over to Luini's for their famous Panzerotti. I felt like I was waiting in line for pizza at a famous place in NYC or something. [Or like I was waiting in line for panzerotti at a famous place in Milan or something.] Delish.

For more reasons than one, I'm glad we waited in that long line (it continues down that road there) rather than going here:

I still can't figure out where their line was...

After that we headed over to an old castle from Milan's beginnings, Castello Sforzesco.

The castle now houses several different museums, so we sauntered through those as well.
You know, gotta get edumacated and stuff.

In the back of the Castello is Parco Sempione, but we only spent enough time on it's edge to snap a picture of the Arco Della Pace.

 The horses made me immediately think of Madrid. I guess Europe likes this whole statue concept.
So do I.

Actually, speaking of Madrid, remember this horse statue from Puerta del Sol?

(From Madrid, not Milan)

 Well Milano has one of it's own, too, all pretty and in the middle of a big square like in Madrid...

But I can't tell you what it looks like:

(They tell me that a statue exists under all that. Who knows.)

The last thing we ventured to see was a nearby statue of "Ago e filo" (needle and thread), which my cousin said has been there for a decade or so and supposedly represents Milan's fashion industry.
Or something.

Arrivederci!

-M