Go Up to the Heavens, Not Down into the Dirt!

The title to this blog posting is the message I think I’m getting, for every time I plan to go to something underground, forces beyond my control conspire to keep that from happening. First it was the Italian Bike Race that kept us from visiting the Catacombs in Rome, then today when I had planned to visit the excavations under the Duomo we found out that was impossible as they were closed for repairs. Ironically that was the only thing I really wanted to do in Milan (other than attend the opera of course), this was because the archaeological excavations under the Duomo include an ancient baptistery (an octagonal pool used for baptism) where Saint Augustine was baptised by Bishop Ambrose (who was responsible for Augustine’s conversion) way back in the 4th century. However we stood above the place where this took place, so that will have to suffice.

It might sound like I was terribly disappointed with our visit to Milan, but that would be incorrect, because instead of going down to the baptistery we went up to the roof. For 5 Euros each Beth and I were allowed to climb the stairs up to the roof of this amazing cathedral. Up on top of the cathedral we got a bird’s eye view of Milan, and got to see the intricate spires up close. I shot a whole roll of film on that roof top - so many cool things to see. The weather was absolutely perfect for such a roof top excursion, sunny with hardly a breeze.

After being outside in the bright sun, and seeing the white marble construction, going inside the cathedral was a study in contrasts. Inside was quite dark and almost gloomy. At the entrance to the Duomo was a soldier and some other type of official, both of whom warned us that there was to be no picture taking inside (we were also told we couldn’t use the tripod on the roof top - I’m beginning to wonder why I brought that thing). Just like at the opera, even though it was cleary stated that there was to be no picture taking in the theatre, people seemed to simply ignore that prohibition. I didn’t bother to try taking pictures in the Duomo even if others were doing that, simply because it was so dark and terrible for picture taking with my setup.

Probably the best part of viewing the inside was simply seeing the size of the place (I read that it can hold 40,000 people comfortably - that’s 10,000 more people than at a packed Rider game!). Apparently it is the third largest cathedral in Europe. The stained glass windows were beautiful as well, but we didn’t spend too much time looking around inside, instead we headed off for La Scala to visit the La Scala store (which we weren’t able to do last night). We walked through a large mall with a glass ceiling (where some of the designer shops were - I bought a Italian tie!) and there was the opera house on the other side.

I had hoped that they had a more recent recording of the opera we heard, which I found I appreciated more than I had anticipated - live opera is so much better than recorded in my estimation. (I found myself being emotionally moved by the end of the performance, much to my surprise). The shopkeeper told me that there are only two recordings of Assassinio Nella Cattedrale, both from the 50’s (when the opera was written), and Beth already has one of those - no modern recordings, so Beth bought a fridge magnet instead.

A quick trip back to the hotel, a quick clean up (including using the ultra cool shower one more time) and we walked to the train station (only 4 blocks away). We’ve used the wheels on our luggage quite a bit, but so far haven’t braved using the backpack straps. Using the automated ticket dispensers we printed out the tickets I purchased on the internet weeks ago - the whole system worked pretty slick once I figured out how to use it. I know I got a good deal on ticket prices when I showed the tickets to a station attendant (trying to figure out what platform our train left from) and he asked me where I got the tickets from, pointing out to another attendant the price, and when I said “The internet” he exclaimed “Oh, the internet, mmm” nodding with approval.

So now we are en route to Rome again where we will meet up with our Globus tour. I suspect that we will not have as much time to write for our blog while on the tour, but we’ll see. I’m looking forward to not worrying about language issues any more, letting the tour guide deal with all that stuff for us. One more thing before I end this post, remember how I said I’ve never seen so many clergy in my life, well, sitting across from us right now on the train is an Italian priest, who was reading some kind of lectionary or service book earlier (with a plastic glove on his one hand for some reason)… maybe he’s preparing for a sermon, something I don’t need to worry about for another 6 weeks!