At this point in our visit to Milan, we'd seen all the major sights we were going to see, and were looking forward to a trip home at the end of our lengthy vacation. But in the course of all of our wandering around, we'd seen and photographed many interesting things that haven't ended up on Bob and Nella's World pages of their own, either because they wouldn't be considered major sights by most people, or because we didn't have time to explore them in more detail. It would be a shame to not at least mention some of these things. So welcome to the Bits & Pieces page.

As with most of the Old Town areas of Europe, there is much in Milan's Old Town that is picturesque and which doesn't involve any kind of visit to a specific place. These are things you can see from just walking around, with no particular expending of time or money. Here's some of that:



There are a number of things people go to Milan to do, and high on this list would be the activity of shopping. This would be on our list as well, but probably not as high as it might appear on the lists of other people (you may have deduced this from the activities described on this site). However, one shopping center that would be very difficult to ignore is the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, a large and distinctive shopping mall which is just steps from Milan's top landmark, the Cathedral or Duomo. The Galleria was built between 1865 and 1867, making it the oldest active shopping mall in Italy. The center of the mall is covered by a glass dome, from which four arcades (also glass-and-iron rooved) emanate. At present the mall is home to several luxury retailers and restaurants, plus a hotel. But it's interesting to visit even if you're not going to buy anything, both to look at the architecture and at some of the decorations. There are statues throughout the Galleria, and there are central floor mosaics devoted to the capitals of Italy as of the mid-19th Century.




If a department store is more to your liking, the La Rinascente department store can be found even closer to the Duomo. La Rinascente is a chain of eleven stores located throughout Italy, the oldest of which is the store in Milan (opened in 1865). The store sells high-end clothing and merchandise, but our shopping was pretty much limited to the top floor, where they sell gourmet food items and supplies, and where a restaurant can be found which sells reasonably-priced sandwiches. Much of this floor is devoted to various confections (i.e. candy).



If you're looking for clothing and merchandise of a more middle-class nature, a street called Corso Buenos Aires, northeast of the center, is home to a variety of retailers. The easiest way to get there is to take the Metro to the Lima station.

Another major reason people visit Milan is to go to church – to the Duomo, to be specific. The attractions of the Duomo, as described in our Duomo page, are many, but if you're into churchy things, you might also want to check into some of the other churches in town. Almost any church you wander into will have something striking to offer. For instance, while looking for a place to eat dinner near our hotel, we came across a church called Santa Maria del Carmine. It wasn't mentioned in our guidebooks, and it was near closing time, but we stepped in to have a quick look out of curiosity. We found the church's decorations to be impressive, and we started taking pictures. But we were the only non-employees in the church, and when they started to turn off the lights on us, we decided it was time to leave.



Another church we visited by accident was the church of San Vittore al Corpo, located just across from the Leonardo Museum. The church was built in the 16th Century as part of a monastery by monks of the Olivetan order. The Leonardo Museum is now located where the rest of the monastery used to be. The outside of the church is on the plain side, but the inside is gorgeous, especially the barrel vaulting of the central nave.






The Church of San Sebastiano, located a little southwest of the Piazza del Duomo, is unusual in a couple of ways (at least). First, the church is essentially cylindrical, and has a cone-shaped roof. This was done partly to make the best use of the size and shape of the land that was available. Ideas were borrowed from other round churches, such as Rome's Pantheon (though on a smaller scale). When you're inside, you're surrounded by chapels, one of which is considered the "main" chapel (this is the one all the seats are pointed toward). The church is not very big, so there are only eight chapels all together (San Sebastiano is a quick visit, and easily worth the time). The second peculiarity of the church is reflected in its official name, the "Civic Temple of San Sebastiano" (Tempio Civico di San Sebastiano). When it was built between 1577 and 1616, it was principally an initiative of the city of Milan, built in gratitude to God for the city's survival of a recent plague (and an implied request to please not send another one). Naturally, the local archbishop, Carlo Borromeo, involved himself in the project, and even supplied an architect, Pellegrino Tibaldi. The resulting church is used for both religious and civic purposes. Managers are named by the city, but must be approved by the church.




A highlight of any visit to an Italian city is the food. Here's some of what we found in Milan:



This brought a close to our visit to Milan. As a curtain call, here's a last look at the Duomo:

Milan's international airport is called Aeroporto di Milano Malpensa, and it's 30 miles northwest of central Milan. We had a choice of three different ways to get there: taxi, train or bus. We opted for a train called the Malpensa Express – it was faster than the other choices, and much cheaper than a taxi (the train cost us 11 euros, while a taxi would have cost 90).

We didn't experience any irregularities on our trip home, unlike on some of our previous trips, but we did have a layover at the airport in Newark, New Jersey. We'd heard some less-than-flattering things about Newark, characterizations that we can neither verify nor refute, as we never left the airport. But we can say that we found the airport's food court to be very nice. If you have to spend a few hours waiting for a plane, as we did, you could do a lot worse than the Newark Airport food court.




A few more hours in the air brought us back home, safe and sound, once again surviving a trip to foreign lands. We returned to our routines as before, though with a new pile of photographs to digest and eventually write about. The urges to travel had been satisfied. Until, some months later, they weren't anymore. And again, we started to plan…