Milan cathedral

So after our stay in Verona, we headed to Milan for the second half of this holiday. While we were intending to use the city as a base for day trips, just as we had done in Verona, Mike had also not visited Milan since we had changed at the station when interrailing 40 years ago (if one excepts last year where our trip to Milan was cut to an overnight stay because of industrial action, and similarly our night on arrival in Italy before catching the train to Verona). So we were going to do the tourist things in Milan too, most but not all of which I had done myself before. 

So after going through the galleria we hit the main square and Milan's number one tourist attraction, its duomo.

Milan's cathedral is indeed a magnificent sight. But if one was on a budget I would suggest skipping a visit inside. The exterior is much more impressive than its somewhat gloomy interior. Which is particularly galling after the long queue you may have stood in either to buy a ticket or on entrance. The exterior is quite amazing, smothered in marble and statuary. Truly no expense spared. It is well worth circumnavigating, preferably with binoculars or a long lens.

That's not to say that the interior is not worth seeing. It certainly is. But one's enjoyment of it is significantly curtailed by the restrictions on which parts you can enter. Like many cathedrals it keeps up the pretense that it is a working place of worship, which of course it is as a tiny obscure sideline to its modern role as a tourist attraction. 99% of visitors have come to gawp, not to worship.

While I had previously visited the interior (and museum), what I hadn't done before is gone up on the roof. And that is the real attraction here for a visitor. Mike suggested we should climb up rather than take the lift option, and I was happy with that. It is not that hard a climb. The views up top are spectacular, not just the views across Milan but also of the statues up top. None of which would be visible to most of the congregation over the centuries. This was just frittering away vast resources for the sake of it. And now of course a playground for sightseers.

There is something quite satisfying about using a Renaissance cathedral roof to get spectacular views of 21st century cathedrals to mammon. Milan's commercial skyline is not unattractive.

The final destination is a stretch of not quite flat roof. Indeed one has to summon a little courage to come off the crest as it does feel like one could slip and slide to.....