Hey guys,
one of the sights that you have to see in Milan and not only from below, as I think, is the Milan Cathedral. It looks even more imposing than in the pictures you know and is bigger than I had thought until then. The Milan Cathedral is one of the first sightseeings we visited in Milan.
The queues in front of the Milan Cathedral were unbelievably long and I had already made me familiar at the beginning with the thought that we might not be able to visit it from above, as we had not booked any tickets in advance. But we were lucky, the people in the long queues wanted to go inside the Milan Cathedral. We, on the other hand, wanted to go upstairs, which was lucky ;) There was still a waiting time, about half an hour.
There were different tickets you could buy, for example two tours at sunrise and sunset (with a discount). We took a normal ticket because we were in Milan for only one day. But if you are here longer, the ticket is definitely recommendable. And then you could choose if you wanted to take the lift up or walk. If you know us savers, you might have thought that we took the cheaper option ;) So we went up a spiral staircase the whole time. I don't know how long the climb took, probably it seemed longer than it really was. We also got a little dizzy. But the view we had afterwards made up for all that.
After the spiral staircase we were on an upper platform or rather narrow paths, where signs showed us the way. Meanwhile we could admire the architecture of the cathedral.
On the lower picture you can see the architecture and small figures and ornaments of the cathedral - here really everything is an attraction.
On the picture below you can see the entrance to the shopping street, the Viktor-Emmanuel Passage in beautiful art nouveau style.
And finally arrived on the roof terrace. Here you can sit on the floor and enjoy the great view in the sunshine. Here you can relax from the ascent (if you want to save money like us and don't take the lift but walk up the stairs) and also enjoy a small snack.
Some facts about the cathedral roof: The cathedral roof, also made of Candoglia marble from Lake Maggiore, was a unique innovation in the construction of cathedrals. On a surface of 8.000 m² you can admire the 135 spires of the cathedral from close up.
Which I found totally impressive: The view reaches over the whole city up to the Alps (with good visibility!) and far into the Lombardy plain. From the roof of the cathedral you have a wonderful view over the whole city.
Although we were there on a normal weekday around noon, it was by no means crowded. As far as I know they limit the number of visitors, so that after a certain number no one is allowed to go up. So the waiting period continues. So it was pleasantly quiet and there was enough space. It was also nice that there was no security staff at every step ;)
After we had a fortunately faster and less exhausting descent down the stairs, we set off for the bus station, from where the Flix buses depart. To this station, we would have had to take the subway or, if necessary, the tram. Directly at the cathedral there is also a subway station. So we wanted to go down - but the entrance was blocked with a grating. Okay, we thought and walked to the next subway station. But again, you couldn't get down, there was also a grating in front of this entrance - very strange!
As in almost all places here, there was a police car around the cathedral from time to time. Not surprising after some terrorist attacks in the world. So we got the idea to ask the police for help. And lo and behold, from that evening on public transport was on strike all over Milan. The nice policeman explained to us that no more public transport would be running until tomorrow. And that at 6 p.m. I felt a little queasy. Sure, there's always a place to stay and if necessary we would have had to stay in Milan for one night. But we would have rather come back to Verona. And the bus ride in the morning didn't take long either.
So we checked when the next Flixbus would come - we would never have got the one we had booked in time, especially since we now had to think about how to get to the Flixbus station. So we booked one for a few hours later, walked around the city, had a smoothie and sat down in front of the Milan Cathedral at sunset and watched how the sun made the Cathedral look more and more yellow.
After about an hour we went to the bus station. A taxi would have been very expensive and we probably had no other option than to walk to the station. Unfortunately I didn't have any internet in Italy during the whole time (always only Wlan in the hostel) which made the search for the station a bit more difficult, especially at the end when the other mobile phone we had left threatened to leave us. Fortunately we found after some searching and a foot march of certainly one hour the bus station still before the accumulator would have given up his spirit completely. In between we were so desperate that we wanted to hitchhike and had already stretched out an arm several times. A part of the time we also walked right at a highway. But in retrospect I am glad that nobody stopped ;) Unfortunately we didn't get the Flixbus we had booked in the evening - we were too late. The next one was supposed to leave about 5 hours later at 3am. But it was completely booked out. We stood a bit helpless at the bus station and I had already resigned myself to spend my first night at a Flixbus station - why not ;)
But that would have been anything but funny - and painful on top of that. Do you remember when I told you that almost everyone in Milan was covered with mosquito bites? At the bus station I realized why. The station was relatively dark, but then it was so well lit that you could see big dark mosquitoes flying all around the station. And really everyone who stood at the station was busy keeping the mosquitoes away. Also my main occupation during the waiting was to beat me (unfortunately I got stung in the end, but I was glad that I wore long pants that day).
Directly at the bus station there was a subway station. After midnight we asked the Flixbus staff again if there were any free seats, then we were told that the trains were running again. We were so relieved! I hadn't felt this happy for a long time ;) so a little tip: Before you go around in Italy and especially Venice, check if there is a strike at that exact time.
We arrived at Verona main station at about 2 o'clock and finally walked for about an hour to our hostel. We were tired! And I've never been so happy to see a bed.. The shower could wait until tomorrow ;) What a day!
A small conclusion to the day: even if it was a little stressful in the end, the Milan Cathedral was definitely worth a visit, the roof terrace gave us a unique view and should not be missed when visiting Milan. The Milan Cathedral is not an insider tip, but one of the most beautiful attractions in Milan.
I will tell you a little bit more about our experiences in Milan, one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen. Stay excited!
View this post on TravelFeed for the best experience.