Milan

The Duomo

Piazza del Duomo. The center of this historic city.

Duomo on the right.

The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele

Great eyeballing venue. This young guy never had a chance!

If you turn left from the Galleria and walk down this street to the east of the Duomo you will be on the famous Corso Vittorio Emanuele II. A great walking, shopping and eating street.

East of the Duomo

So here we are after walking east of the Duomo on Courso VE II. A look back at the Duomo at the end of the street.

Plenty of sights to enjoy. No vehicles allowed.

Never a shortage of bars and restaurants for a quick glass of wine, or full meal.

Corso VE II (left) ends here at the Piazza San Babila.

The terrain shifts from heavy shopping to residential. This is the street entrance to some fabulous home and garden. Only the super wealthy can afford to live in this area.

The Shopping

Cute Fiat advertisement along the street in front of the Prada store.

Some of these plastic Fiats have trees growing out of their top. The carabinieri were not ticketing those Fiats.

The amazing Milano Centrale Stazione

This is the large Piazza Ducca d'Aosta. The Stazione Centrale is the center building. The glass tower on the left is the Pirelli Building, constructed right after the WWII as the first high rise building in Italy. Immediately to the right of the Stazione is the Hotel Michelangelo, where we have stayed many times over the years. Our Italian daughter, Florella and her family live about two blocks past the Michelangelo. Since this is a full 360 degree pan, the street at the extreme right or left in the photo is the Via Pisani, which leads directly into the center of Milano. The Duomo is about five kilometers away.

This is argueabily the finest example of fascist architecture in the world. Actually Art Deco with many trimmings of the symbols of fascism, the scale of this building is enormous. Construction started in 1906, but was delayed by the First World War. The final design and construction was influnced greatly by Mussolini. Hence the heavy facist decoration. Completed in 1931.

The building tops 72 meters (240 ft) in height. No human scale here.

The entry hall. Newly installed escalators allow passengers to descend to the ticketing level. The ceiling is about 100 ft above the floor.

This is one of two inner halls connecting the entry hall with a third hall enroute to the trains.

These are the escalators coming up two levels from the ticketing area to the large third hall. These are sloped flat moving sidewalks that enable passengers to wheel their luggage.