Jun 2007

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele is world's oldest shopping mall. Built in 1865 till 1867 designed by Giuseppe Mengoni, the mall has 4 floors with fresco and mosaic style. It is a cross shape arcade mall, connecting piazza del duomo and piazza della scala. The arcade was covered by glass and at the center there is a cupola (kind of half ball roof) also made from glass. This place is the place for finding luxurious things such as food, drink, cloths, bag, and so on with very very high quality (and expensive). Famous branded !!!

The galleria becomes a landmark of Milan. As it is also located beside the Duomo di Milano (another famous place for tourism), it is not strange if this place is very crowded. Happy people with smile, shooping, laughing. It just has a sad story since Mengoni, the designer, was died also in this place, falled down from the scaffolding, while adding the finishing touches. Mmm, I am not so sure, but the largest and biggest shop in this area is McDonald which sell a fast food. The price is little higher but the most important is finally we can find clean restroom!!!

Super dupper big skeleton!! The name is calamita cosmita made by Italian artist Gino de Dominicis. It said that he made it to represent his mortality. But not such that big, I think. There are some rumors about this guy. One said that he disappeared and tell no one where he is. Other version said he died exactly on April Fool's day on age of 51. Anyway, it was fortune for me that I could make a picture in front of it. It is because (based on news) by May 1, it will be moved to other cities in Europe, such as Hamburg, Paris, Brussel.

Calamita cosmica means cosmic magnet. Based on the story, the strange nose of this skeleton want to represent the meeting point between cosmic energy and human element. More than that, I can not say anything. Anyway, nice attraction as it was also located in the piazza duomo which is already famous place for tourism in Milano.

This could be the 2nd beloved building in Milano after Duomo. Full of historical story and the symbol of power in the past. Some of scalptures of some greatest artists, e.g. Michaelangelo, are there also. The castle is located in front of Duomo, around 500 meters. So, you walk through via Orefici continued to via Dante. From via Dante, you can see the tower of the castle with brown brick colour.

Long time ago, this castle was becoming symbol of tyranny. When it was changed into republic, people destroyed the castle and used the stone for the townwall. Until a guy, named Francesco Sforza who is one of Milan hero, tried to restore the castle. The famous part is the design of the big cylindrical tower at each corner of the castle. The restoration has sacrificed an old church, Chiesa del Carmine. However, this castle is meaningless at that time since most of king's family did not want to stay there.

This castle has a lot of history on it. When France and Spain invided Milano, they took this place for luxury residence. Specially during Spain occupation, they rebuit a star-like shape of fortress wall for this castle. In 1706, when Autria invided, they used it for barrac. As a symbol of this tragedy, they put statue of Saint John Nepomuceno. It is still there until now. Next is Napoleon came and took this castle for the host of his soldiers. In 1800, Napoleon was lose again to Austia and the castle was used again as barrac. The complete hystory of this castle can be found in the website (http://www.milanocastello.it/ing/storia.html).

June 2, 2007

After delaying many times, finally I have dropped to this city. Citta di Milano (city of Milan). This was the second time but when I visited the first time, I did not go anywhere because I have to wait the train to go Basel. For this 2nd periode, really that I wanted to walk in the city and see the beauty of Milan. It is not enough just by this letter to describe the beauty of Milan..
By subway which I payed 1 euro for one time journey, I went directly to Duomo. I was surprised with the style, the size, the relief and anything. It means not only the size which is big but also artistic. Just little dissapointed that I went there and it was under construction. I walked around two times to 'absorb' its beauty. There was a queue to go up by stairway but i did not want to do it as I have to visit many places.

In front of Duomo, in the right side, you will see vitorio emanuelle galery. A kind of pedestrian for shopping covered by glass roof. Really nice. I bought some acessories such as postcards there. The price is around 0.6 euro. So many things that you can buy. In this gallery you can find the thing that has prices, for me, unreachable. Ha ha ha .. too too expensive. There are also some churches near the duomo if you want to visit and also nice. In the piazza duomo, at that time when I visited, there was big skeleton named 'calamita cosmita' made by Italian artist. Very big and nice to get a picture in front of it.

When you walk in front of the doumo follows the street you will find a palace of Sforzesca. It has a big park at the behind of the palace. In the palace, if you want because you have to pay to enter, you can see the old statue of michelangelo or da vinci (if i am not wrong). Because I am not good art-fans so I don't know.

It was just an idea that came to me at night before I went to Milano. Novara city is located between Torino and Milan (around 1 hour from Torino or 45 mins from Milan). It is also a junction when you want to go Switzerland from Genova. I went there by tricky idea. I bought ticket to Milan from Torino, but I stoped in Novara for 2 hours, and back to get next train to Milan. I don't know whether this idea is correct or not but I was successful to do it.

Novara is the 2nd largest population in Piamonte region after Torino. Although it was said 2nd largest, don't think that Novara is crowded city. It was really very calm, silent, and quite a lot old people. Even this city is not mentioned in yahoo travel. I did not see many young people with 'strange' style in this city. The main view of Novara is the big and tall tower of Basilica San Gaudenzio. It has 121 meters long with artistic design. You can see this tower form the station or from every parts of the city. The basilica itself is also nice. Instead of basilica with its tall tower, there is also duomo di Novara (catedral di Novara) which is very old. It is located near the basilica by crossing the downtown of the city. Near the duomo, there is a children park which will be very crowded of children during weekend. Novara views is very nice. In downtown, not many cars crossing the street so you can really enjoy your walk. When I was there, there was a ceremony held by red cross of italy dedicated for old people who helped the organization (I think), so, such a festival that rarely happen in that small city. There are also some other churches which are quite old and artistic in term of design in this city, so just visit this city. Just the problem is, when I tried to find a postcard of Novara, I could not find it. Oh ..

June 2, 2007