Milan Duomo

2-Nov-2013 (Saturday) - Milan.

It was our first day in Italy, and I was paranoid as hell over pickpockets as my kind colleagues and helpful guide book has warned me so much about. I avoided crowd, and held my belonging close. I was uptight and on alert at all time. And I can tell you, it is damn tiring, and totally unnecessary. We did not get mugged, scammed or our pockets picked through out our whole trip. When I get paranoid over petty crimes of a country I'm traveling to, I always remind myself that I'm from a country far worst then whatever they have to offer :) And since pick pocket was the main concern in Italy, I did deploy a few tactics like distributing my cash at different location, but mainly, I carried my documents and cash in a A4 size plastic file placed in my fabric bag. It's kinda hard to pick an A4 size file without anyone noticing. I thought that was rather cleaver of me. The file is pretty visible, with only papers at sight, and so big that it couldn't really be taken out of the bag anyway.

Anyway, the one thing you need to see when in Milan is the Duomo (Cathedral). So upon reaching Milan and after checking in to our hotel, we walked to the Duomo. The building itself was magnificent! And I'm a mega fan of Gothic churches! We walked around it, and try our luck to go in, hoping that it was free. It was! And the inside was just as amazing. It was huge! 

  

One of the thing that shocked me was the mummified priest that were plainly on displayed through out the church. I always associate mummies with Egyptians, and was not expecting to see any dead bodies here. It was a rather fascinating discovery!

 

Although the sign says no photography, we saw a lot of people just snapping away. So we did the same. Eventually a guard came over to inform us that we can only take photos if we purchased a 2Euro tag that permits the wearer to take photos inside the Duomo. Oh! We apologized and stopped taking photograph. I had the intention to come back on my last day, purchase the tag and go wild, but that never did happen due to strikes that kept us from going anywhere near the Duomo. But we managed a night view shot while we were walking back from the Last Supper.

Ref:
Duomo Official Site
Milan Duomo/Cathedral
Gothic Architecture