Milan Cathedral

I wanted to go to Milan, since we had never been there before. It is Italy's second largest city, its financial and communications center, home to the great cathedral, galleria, La Scala, and the Pinoteca Ambrosiana, all of which we wanted to see. Happily, all these are located a few steps from each other, and we were able to do everything we wanted, even some shopping, and then move on. We camped the night before on a quiet street in a suburban business park, then the next day parked at the water-park adjacent to the one Milan campground (which we judged too expensive to justify an overnight) and took a combination of bus and metro into the city center.

Milan's great cathedral, begun in 1386, more or less finished in the 1800s; said 
to be the largest Gothic cathedral; 4th largest in Christendom; super-duper 
flamboyant Gothic; unlike so many others, this puppy is all marble; intended to

accommodate all of Milan's 15th century population, 40,000; seen across Piazza 
del Duomo

3500 sculptures are said to adorn its exterior

Nice gargoyles

Nice martydom sculptures

Inside the feeling is one of great expanse and volume; the piers are enormous; 
the feeling of expanse is hindered, however, by all the paintings hanging around 
like so much wash

The windows range in age from 1405 to the 20th century 
and are in very good condition; this is the oldest one

Vicki reading a window

Flight to Egypt

Annunciation

Sculpture of the flayed St. Bartholomew; I hope the model 
was well-paid

One of the three huge apse windows; 19th century copies 
of the originals

Some of the original inlaid marble floor, differentially worn 
by centuries of thousands of feet of the devout and tour buses

Chapel

Altar and apse; Baroque; note the little red light at the top 
near the ceiling

X marks the spot; under the red light is where they keep 
The Relic, a True Nail of the True Cross, brought back from 
the Holy Land by  Constantine's mom, St. Helen, who must 
have needed a small fleet to haul back all the religious loot 
attributed to her; remember, it was her boy's Edict of Milan 
that legalized Christianity