24 hours in Milan

What is there to do in the high fashion capital that is Milan? Visit a bone church of course! Just a few minutes walk from the city’s famous Duomo (Cathedral) is a church with a tiny chapel in the back that’s packed full of bones. The church of San Bernardino alle Ossa is pretty unremarkable when compared to the rest of Italy's churches, but the bone chapel is what sets it apart.

The chapel was built in 1210, when an adjacent cemetery ran out of space, a room was built to hold bones. A church was later attached in 1269. The walls are decorated with human skulls and tibiae. 

The bone room is rather small, but the ceiling soars overhead so there’s plenty of space on the high walls for the stacks of bones. The bones are not as artistically arranged as they are at the Capuchin Crypt in Rome. For the main part just carefully stacked skulls and large bones. But in the two biggest wall panels, the large bones make up the background while the skulls are arranged to make the symbol of the cross. 

Duomo di Milano

This rather Tim Burton looking cathedral is very imposing, as we emerged from the tube station the cathedral seemed to never end. It is Huge! With its Gothic style it reminded us a little of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. Though it is not as modern as Gaudi's masterpeice. The construction began in 1386 & the cathedral took almost 6 centuries to complete. As we took photos and wandered around the cathedral the weather took a turn for the worse. After the searing heat of Bologna I welcomed it. We had planned to look around the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, which is the world's oldest shopping centre & is right next to the Duomo so it worked out ok. 

Angry cloud above Ray

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II

The worlds oldest shopping centre. Bit like Meadow hall

It is said it is good luck to stand on the bulls balls & spin around. You can see the embarrassment on Cats face so when we found the correct bull to spin on she refused the second time. Should of known it wasnt the bull as this had teats & suckling calves. 

Gucci Cafe. Odd.

The glass ceiling had seen better days. Rain leaked through in several sections

In the evening we tubed our way to the Navigli District which had no tourists & a really cool San Fran look to it.

As we walked around, Cisco soon turned into Amsterdam where the canal was littered with bars & restaurants. We enjoyed another Aperitivo.

As I write this blog bbc news has just reported that there was a tornado in Milan this very morning! I am glad it wasnt 48 hours in Milan.