Tall and imposing with the city nestled right up next to it.
The door was this fantastic bronze sculpture that had lots of bits poking out. Here's a closeup of the door to show off the 3D effect.
Inside the church it was pretty standard.
And there was this fantastic sculpture of a man who had been flayed and was holding his skin. He's probably a saint but I have no idea which one.
After we wandered around inside the church we went onto the roof. This was a fantastic opportunity because usually when you climb up to the top of a church you walk around the bell tower and then head down. However, here the roof of the Duomo was designed for people to walk around and look at.
So we paid our 5Euro and walked up the narrow stairs ending up on the lower part of the roof. We walked under all the flying buttresses.
And I took endless pictures of all the statues because they looked so good at this height.
As we made our way around to the back of the church (away from the alter) we climbed the last set of stairs to emerge on the flat top of the roof.
It was a beautiful day already and the crowds only grew as we stayed on top. Above the alter there were stairs to continue the climb but this area was closed off due to construction so we couldn't go any further.
In front of the Duomo was one of the better lion statues that I've seen.
And I learned something new about water fountains in Milan (and maybe Italy). There's often a little hole on top of the water tap and if you plug the fountain (but not too much or you squirt water everywhere) you can get a nice little water fountain to drink from. Very convenient.
There are lots of public parks in Milan and we wandered towards the old castle and looked at the gardens there.
And to the triumph gate with 6 horses instead of the usual 4 that I've seen.
There were lots of things about Da Vinci and we went to a gallery that had many of his original drawings and notes. He would have random things in random directions on the paper, notes about water and drawings of a woman's hand and then sketches of a war machine. We were told that to see the Last Supper (in the church right around the corner which we didn't even realize) you needed to reserve tickets well in advance. Since we didn't have any tickets we just wandered in to look around.
We looked in the entrance and when the guide asked us what we were doing I asked if there was any chance there were tickets and he said there were cancellations and we got tickets (free) for the next entrance time slot. So we got to see the Last Supper which was pretty cool and very unexpected. It was unexpectedly bigger just like the Mona Lisa in the Louvre was unexpectedly smaller.
That evening we wandered around the canals, it was a very lively time, everyone was out and drinking and eating and walking around. Things were very crowded but if you looked around you could find places that offered a free cold food buffet when you bought a drink.
The next day was less pretty but interesting, we wandered through some of the richer streets looking at expensive shops and to an art gallery (Jesus Jesus Jesus). And then it was a convenient train ride back to Lausanne.
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