The Mall--Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II

The first place I checked out after leaving the Duomo was to a massive, cross-shaped, covered pedestrian mall.  I think that Uncle Tony and Aunt Gail talked about visiting this mall when they visited Christie while she was teaching in Europe.  You can see the very large Piazza del Duomo--or the cathedral square--below.  Just to the north of the  square, you can see the mall--which is silver, with a large dome in the center and you can get an idea of just how big it is.

The southern entrance to the pedestrian mall, from the Piazzo del Duomo.  You get an idea
of the size of the building if you see how tall the people right inside the arch are.

There are paintings on the walls inside the mall, because it is protected from the weather.
Because the roof is glass, it was really light inside but because of the cross-ventilation,
it was surprisingly pleasant inside, despite the heat outside.

In the central area of the Galleria, there were a couple of people walking around with signs that said "Abrazos Gratis!" or "Free Hugs Here!"  I thought that that was weird enough but people seemed to be taking them up on the offer!  It was quite bizarre.  They looked like they might be tourists, so I don't know if it is fair to blame this on the Italians, but I never saw anybody doing this in the Netherlands.

If you go here, you can see a video of the mall area.  It is about 3 minutes long and parts of it are very jouncy, but it does give an idea of what it is like to be inside the Galleria.  It also shows some of the shops that are in there--like Prada.  They are spendy stores.  I didn't buy anything when I was there.