Our first sight of Milan beyond the train station and the metro station was the Duomo, seems appropriate. The night shot is not great because of the lighting, but you get a sense of the size of the building. It has a seating capacity of 40,000 (3rd largest cathedral in the world).
We took the roof tour. You can climb all over the roof and see the statues and a great view of the city.
The day was clear and beautiful. Last time David and I were here it was foggy and you couldn't see two blocks away.
You can see the old, the new (modern skyscrapers) and the mountains in the distance.
They are in the process of a multiyear restoration effort to clean and repair the stone. You can see from the picture above this one where they are actually replacing some of the stone work that has been damaged. And in this picture you can see the damage the acid rain has done to the stonework. About half the roof is covered with scaffolding to clean the very top points now.
There were men in military uniforms patrolling the entrance and the interior. Kind of weird. I've never seen this level of security at any other church, except possibly the vatican, but they did not patrol inside St. Peter's bascilica.
The wall on the right is stone, the wall on the left is a giant picture of the building attached to scaffolding. I have to say that the giant LED billboard attached to the scaffolding seemed slightly sacreligous to me.
Panoramic of the interior. This is standing in the center, you get a sense of the massive size.
Can you spot what someone accidentally left behind on the alter?
They were preparing for a big concert in the square. It looked kind of strange to have the beautiful cathedral and a modern rock concern stage in the same space.
No comments:
Post a Comment