Milan, Italy

The building to the right is by Renzo Piano (he's a really famous architect whose office is actually located in Genoa). Piano did the addition to Richard Meier's High Museum in Atlanta, GA.


A bit more modern architecture...


When we got to the older, more central part of town, there was more traditional Italian architecture...lots of the palazzios (palaces) had these beautiful little couryards inside them.


Milan is supposed to be the height of European fashion...


But we kept finding these skanky unitards with random holes cut in them...(???)



The Piazza del Duomo was full of pigeons...


And this goofy looking guy would come up to you and put corn kernals in your hands, and you're like "ok this could be fun, I'll feed the birds"...


...then they decend upon you and its maddness, but the guy keeps refilling your hands with food...I think he does this to amuse himself all day. You can tell by his face (in the picture above) he's getting a kick out of the stupid Americans (I'm serious, click on the picture with him in the yellow jackt, look at his little smirk, and tell me that turd doesn't know exactly what he's doing to the poor tourists! I can't be too hard on him though, its actually a good idea...someone should set this up on one of the beaches or docks in Charleston and we can get the tourist to feed the seagulls hehehehe...)



another helpless victim...


El Duomo de Milano (1386-1887)
This cathedral is HUGE, and its unique because it was done in the Gothic style but in a white stone, so because it has a "lighter" look the style is called "flower gothic". Also, it took 5 centuries to complete and they maintained the original design and producion process throughout the entire construction as they built it from back to front. With the heavy clouds, it made the place look really misty...and very beautiful...

They had prayer candles set up along the side isles with smaller prayer alters.


(smaller places of meditation)


(the nave...or main isle)


(the side doors in the front)

The door is made up of these tiny religious vinettes that are amazingly detailed. You can see the Roman gaurd's leg (I think its a Roman guard) and Jesus' leg has been rubbed so often that its stays "polished"...the whole doors are actually this bronze/copper metal, not the greenishness.

Man, those Catholics know how to BUILD a CHURCH! (what, what!?!?) There are over 40 churches in Genoa...and all of them are Catholic.

You can tell from the pictures that it was really cloudy (kind of depressing) and absolutely FREEZING, but we had a good time.

We also saw the church that holds Leonardo's The Last Supper but we couldn't see it at the time because in order to get a group our size in there, you have to call in for reservations. Our prof. called in September, and nothing was available until JUNE! Some of us are planning to go back and see it as a smaller group.