Walking Through Milan, Part II

Just north of the Galleria, there was a little square called the Piazza della Scala, with a statue of Leonardo da Vinci.  The Milan tourism board has a website about the statute.  It has a little bit of a history of it, although it mostly has a picture with an address but you can see it here.  You can see more about the whole square, including the famous theater which it fronts, here.
























The statues at each corner are da Vinci's favorite students, although I couldn't find the specific names.


Each of the friezes on the sides shows one of da Vinci's accomplishment in art and science.

An old bank building which now serves as an art gallery.  I especially liked the two tone facade.
You can see the English version of the Gallerie d'Italia, Piazza della Scala location, here.

After I left the Piazza della Scala, I started walking north-ish, and then got a bit lost and wandered around for a while before I found where I was getting to.  Part of the problem was that my city guide was in Dutch (because I found the most adorable little booklets with maps and information about Milan and Rome, for only $2, at a big bookstore in Rotterdam).  While I was able to read up on the sights without too much trouble, it was more difficult, when walking down various streets, to read signs in Italian and then to find those names in Dutch on a tiny map.

While I was walking through the city, I saw loads of little restaurants with windows onto the street, so you could walk up to the window and order pizza or ice cream.  As far as I could tell, a lot of them didn't have any seating--they only cooked the food and served it to passers-by.  It was way too hot to get any pizza but I did stop and get a gelato--which is like super creamy Italian ice cream.  It was really excellent--it came in a very delicious, home-made, waffle cone.  However, as I started to walk away, a little old lady, who probably came up to my shoulder, held out her hand, with a coin in it, and started talking to me in Italian.  I thought at first that she was telling me I had dropped the coin, so I shook my head "no" and said thank you, and started to walk away.  Then she started to talk louder, and stepped in front of me and kept getting louder and louder and visibly more irate.  I finally slipped around her but then she kept hollering at me as I walked away.  I still don't know what she wanted.  The only thing I can guess is that she either 1) wanted me to make up the difference so that she could buy her own gelato or 2) just had a coin in her hand to demonstrate that she wanted more coins.

Milan is known as one of the fashion capitols of the world.  Practically every street I crossed,
 was full of stores selling clothes, or shoes, or scarves, or jackets.  There were lots of people
who seemed fascinated by it.  If I appreciated expensive Italian clothes more, I might have
gotten more out of it. 

You could tell that Milan was fancier than Wal-mart, say, because their mannequins were black instead of white.

Out of the blue, while I was walking down the street, I came upon this archway across the street.  It wasn't a bridge so I wasn't sure what it was at first.  It turns out that it is the Porta Nuova, one of the two remaining medieval gates to the city.  The city has grown out quite a bit since then.  The exact provenance and age of the gate are a bit mysterious.  Some websites say that it is actually part of the wall and just managed to survive WWII.   If this is true, the wall is about 800 or 900 years old.  Other websites say that it is a replica, built on the original place of the wall, on across the Via Manzoni, which is an original Roman road, in the mid-1800s.  This makes it both less old and less authentic.  These sites explain the wear on the busts in the wall as a result of them being made out of sandstone.  However, making it more confusing, "Porta Nuova" is also used to mean the neighboring business and fashion district, which may well have begun in the 1800s, which might explain the discrepancy.  

I took pictures of the busts in the wall, with the plan of trying to figure out the inscriptions.  However, the shadows and angles make it difficult and so I have been unable to do so.  However, they do look old, so I am inclined to decide the gate is original and authentic.  It is more fun that way.

Eventually, I found my way back to the Central Train Station but, since I had loads of time before my train, I decided to stroll around the area near the station and to find some place to eat.  The area around the station is, not unnaturally, full of hotels and restaurants.  Most of the restaurants seemed like the Italian version of fast food, plus there were loads of McDonalds (the Italians really seem to enjoy their McDonalds for some reason).  I stopped at the

I also found this church, while I was out walking.  It is the Santuario di San Camillo de Lellis, or the Shrine of St. Camillus de Lellis.  It is quite modern, as it was built in 1902, but it is quite classical looking--it is gothic revival.  I didn't go inside, since it was fairly late when I walked by, but if you click here you can see some pictures of the interior.  The building itself is a very interesting shape.  From the front it just looks rectangular but from the top it is a bulbous cross shape.  It is quite pretty.

The church (and the square it is on: Piazza San Camillo de Lellis) are named after a 16th century Italian priest and military man who became a medic and whose religious order was known for its care of the sick and for serving as army medics.  That's not too bad a legacy.

I kept looking for some place to eat but it was very, very hot and none of the restaurants seemed to have air conditioning.  Also, many of them were busy and very confusing looking.  A lot of the restaurants were cafeteria style and, from my experience, those kinds of places in Europe can be super difficult to navigate, especially in a foreign language.  There are loads of different counters, where prices are not clearly labeled and it seemed like too much to handle in the heat, in Italian, and while barely being able to see or breath because of the massive hay-fever like attack.  Plus, a fair number of places had sushi, and that just seemed dangerous in 100 degree heat and un-air-conditioned premises.

If you go here, you can see a collection of photos of Milan, by a really good photographer.  They are quite spectacular.

If you go here, you can see a 15 minute video of a walking tour through Milan.  It is a pretty long video but the music background isn't bad and it was kind of fun to see all of the things that I saw before from air-conditioned comfort.  What is especially nice is that it has labels which explain all of the things that you are looking at, which is quite useful.