Just off to the left of the Duomo is this edifice, the entrance to Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, an upmarket shopping arcade. This photo was taken in Piazza Duomo, which is at the front of the Duomo.
The view from just inside the entrance shown above. It's a cross shaped arcade formed around 4 blocks of shops. And a glass roof to keep the rain out.
Definitely not your typical Westfield shopping centre! Although the booth at the bottom is a bit tacky, especially compared to the art at the top. This is in the intersection of the two arms of the cross.
I don't know what this was all about - the couple look as though they are dressed for a wedding, and there's a cameraman recording it; whether it's a real wedding, or making a promotional or commercial video was not clear. It's not especially obvious, but the somewhat uneven looking greenish floor on which they are standing is a large aerial photo of Milan; I spent some time looking at it, figuring out where things were, including the airport.
Out the "back" of the Galleria is Piazza della Scala, home of the famous La Scala Opera House. I confess to not realising this at the time. The statue is of Leonardo da Vinci, who is facing the La Scala.
Milan is Italy's fashion and finance capital, and is thus more of a working city than Rome or Florence. And so one sees high rise buildings, such as this one strategically placed beyond the far end of the arcade.
And in line with the commercial spirit is this advertisement, perhaps even more interesting because of its location - on the side of the scaffolding around the front of the Duomo. The theme of the ad for the Citroen C2 appears to be that it's an alternative to the Batmobile.
By now it was time to return to Monza, so it was back to the subway to head for the main station, which is shown here. While I was waiting for the Lecco/Tirano train (first stop Monza) a French TGV rolled into the station. It looked a little weather beaten, and overall wasn't very pretty to look at; I was rather disappointed, thinking it would be a sparkling white colour, rather than dirty gray.
The train to Monza and beyond. Obviously not air conditioned.
After an uneventful journey to Monza Station, I started walking back to the apartment, checking out some of the "downtown" area of Monza. I don't really have any idea what this statue represents, but it is large! And I haven't been able to discover anything about it using Google. Otherwise, downtown Monza was not overly exciting, being mostly shops. There's also an old cathedral (but I was suffering from cathedral/church overdose by now), which is rather crowded by other buildings.
But I was home in time to clean up and ready to head off when Jon came home from work.
Tourist In Milan