Tonight is our last in Milan – tomorrow morning we’ll be heading for Lisbon.

It’s been nice to have unstructured time (group tours have their advantages but…) and as we were here 4 years ago we aren’t feeling the need to fit in lots of sight-seeing.  We are even in the same hotel so we’ve had a good idea of our way around. In a strange coincidence while checking in we bumped into a couple from Sydney we met on a walking tour around Lake Como 4 years ago.  Judy and Edward were about to start a self guided walk with the same compnay we just finished our Sicily tour with.  A very small world!

Anyhoo, we’ve had a nice 2 days – after the rainstorm the night we arrived it’s been mild and today was sunny.  Yesterday, after a walk through the castle we went to the Triennale di Milano which was described as a design museum.  We saw three exhibitions – the most interesting was also the most confronting – a collection of different works – film, photography and various installations on the theme of migration, covering everything from the migration of italians to the US in in the late 1800s through to the current refugee crises.  Very thought provoking and some amazing photography.  On a lighter note was a small exhibition about design of  italian childrens’ toys, games etc from about the 1920s on.  The last was a small architecture exhibit.

Today I was keen to go back into the Duomo and we thought we’d get to the ticket office when it opened at 8am and beat the crowds.  On the way were we passed by a parade of folk in what looked like the outfit of a catholic order of some kind.  Turned out that the Duomo was closed until 9 due to a ceremony involving them.  We were then directed to a different ticket office which wasn’t open, so we queued back where we were as it was supposed to open at 9.  Except at 9 that changed to 10. So off to a different spot to queue to be told that today we didn’t need a ticket.🤷‍♀️

So eventually we got in.  I wanted to see the stained glass; we went on the roof last time and it’s amazing but this time lots of the statues are behind scaffolding for restoration so we didn’t bother.  We are still a bit mystified as to the ceremony that was still going on when we got in but it seems to be something to do with the centenary of the vision of the Madonna by 3 children at Fatima in Portugal – which we visit as part of our next tour.

After that we had a bit of a wander around the shops including finding Via Montenapoleone, the most concentrated area of fancy brands I’ve ever seen – truly how the 1% shop!

We carried on strolling up to Corso Como to a design/clothes/book shop we visited last time – turned out they were exhibiting the best of the World Press Photos for the last yeat. It carried on the theme of interesting/confronting from yesterday but again, some of the photography was amazing.  Around Corso Como Milan was out – shopping, lunching etc – its a significant hike from the main tourist area around the Duomo so it felt quite relaxed and less frantic.

Looking forward to our last italian meal for awhile – although last night we went to a japanese restaurant which was great.

As usual some pictures will follow.