My 3 day Italy trip - Milano, Piazza of the Cathedral, the Cathedral's façade - The 20th of September 2015

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We reached Milan Central Station by early afternoon and because we had two hours to spare before heading to Malpensa Airport we tried to leave our back packs at the baggage bureau to soon realise the queue was so gigantic that it would be better to hop onto the metro and visit the Cathedral with the weight on rather than miss the opportunity to do so.


We walked directly into the Piazza bearing the same name as the Cathedral with a monumento to King Vitorio Emanuelle II, to whom the Italians are said to have given the epithet of Father of the Fatherland, once he became the first King of the Kingdom of Italy, a Gallery named after him, said to be one of the world's oldest shopping malls  housed within a four-storey double arcade,  the Palazzo Carminati and the Cathedral, which was magnificent to look at and clearly the most attractive of them all.

We feared not being allowed in because of our back packs but once we were told it would be possible and they were looked through at the check-in point by  the Carabineri we walked to the Royal Palace of Milan, just across the road from the Catedral's entrance to buy the entry tickets, not before having taken a few photographs of its main façade, which was very impressive.

Dedicated to St. Mary of the Nativity, the Gothic Cathedral is said to have taken nearly six centuries to complete, being the 5th largest church in the world and the 2nd largest in Italy.

(To be continued)

 

 

 

My 3 day Italy trip - Firenze, St. Trinità church - The 20th of September 2015

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I didn't have the time I would have liked to have had to explore the church of Santa Trinità, which I was impressed by, once more because of the frescoes, namely Girlandaio's.

 

Said to have been built in the second half of the 11th century by the Vallombrosan order, it was very plain so as to reflect the austerity and simplicity of the order. It would later become gradually more ornate, with a Barroque façade added in 1593.

 

 

Bas-relief over the central door sculpted by Pietro Bernini and Giovanni Caccini.

The Adoration of the shepperds (1485) by Domenico Ghirlandaio. Frescoes by Ghirlandaio  (1433).

Altar piece by Marioflodi Nardo - 1416.

Wooden statue of Mary Magdalene by Desiderio da Settignamo -1450 (left).

 

My 3 day Italy trip - Firenze, On the way to Saint Trinità; Piazza S. Croce, strolling along the Arno river - Santa Trinità bridge - The 20th of September 2015

We left very early in the morning on what would be our last morning in Firenze before getting on the train to take us back to Milano, where we would later fly from. We had hesitated as to what we might have been able to fit in till it was time to catch the train, so between visiting the church of Santa Croce Santa Trinità and or eventually cross over to the other side of the river and risk visiting the church of Saint Espirito, we opted for the church of Santa Croce.

 

We soon found out it would only open by eleven, which was out of the question for us, as we would be gone by then. I photographed some of the church façade's details, as well as Dante's sculpture, which I had fallen in love with.

From there we walked along the river Arno towards Saint Trinità church, which we realised would be the only one we would have time to visit during the amount of time left. Furthermore, we were carrying our back packs and they did make a difference in regards to our walking pace.

 

 

 

 

 

We finally reached Ponte Santa Trinità, considered the most beautiful bridge in Florence. Said to have been originally built in wood in 1252 it was later rebuilt by Ammannati as a monument to Cosimo I's defeat of Siena. Michelangelo is credited as having been behind its elegant design. The statues of the four seasons, two of which we managed to photograph, were added in 1608 for Cosimo II's marriage to Maria of Austria.

(To be continued)