Italy from South to North – Day 8: Florence and Milan

I booked the earliest slot for the Galleria dell’Accademia so that we could take the train to Milan as soon as possible. We ate breakfast at a local café, where I tried a custard-filled pastry and drank a glass of orange juice. The Galleria dell’Accademia opened at 8:15 sharp. One of its most famous works, the Rape of the Sabines by Giambologna, stood just behind the entrance, while Michelangelo’s David greeted us from beneath a glass dome. To approach him, we walked through a long corridor past some of Michelangelo’s unfinished works, and only by the time we stood in front of him did his monumental size become apparent. The entire hall, we read, was built specifically to house this statue, which had stood on the Piazza della Signoria until the nineteenth century.

Besides these famous works, the Galleria dell’Accademia also exhibits plenty of medieval art and dedicates an entire section to musical instruments. These include several Stradivari pieces as well as a few bizarre instruments that have fallen out of use, such as the hurdy-gurdy. Nevertheless, the whole collection is quite bite-sized, and we finished our tour in under an hour. After returning to the hotel and picking up our bags, we set off once more for the main train station.

The train to Milan took a little under two hours. We managed to get seats on the earliest train available, though the only spots left were in business class and we had to pay extra. Still, we were glad that we managed to arrive in Milan at noon rather than four o’clock. Once we had checked in and left our bags at the hotel, we proceeded to the centre of town. The first historically significant building we passed was the famous Teatro alla Scala, from which the Victor Emmanuel II Gallery led us straight to the Piazza del Duomo.

At this stage, we were forced to alter our plans, as we ran into a major protest that filled up a good portion of the square. We later learned that today was the international day for the elimination of violence against women, and Italy recently witnessed a particularly horrifying case of femicide. Instead of entering the cathedral as we had intended, we therefore looped around through the royal palace and after several unsuccessful attempts to find food, we finally sat down to eat lunch at around two o’clock. Aron and I shared a pizza and a risotto, the latter of which is reportedly a very popular dish in Milan. Indeed, while researching the topic, I found out that Italy is the largest rice producer in Europe.

Following lunch, our next stop was Basilica San Lorenzo Maggiore, which was somewhat unfortunately undergoing significant renovations. The Basilica di Sant’Ambrogio, on the other hand, welcomed us in its full splendour, and we paid an extra euro to see some of the old relics and mosaics at the back of the church. Finally, we visited the richly decorated Church of San Maurizio. This, I think, was the highlight of the afternoon; the paintings were beautiful and vibrant, depicting various Biblical scenes in curious detail. The painting of Noah’s Ark, for example, included two unicorns trotting their way up the ship’s wooden ramp.

We finished our tourist itinerary by walking past the Italian Stock Exchange and the medieval Piazza Mercanti to the Cathedral. The tickets we bought at the shop on the main square included a visit to the Cathedral Museum, so we popped in to see some of the old statues and relics, some of which were truly impressive. I think I was most struck by a huge 14^th century golden head belonging to God. Just like the first church we visited, the Cathedral was undergoing renovations, but the atmosphere was saved by the electrifying sounds of choir’s song during mass.

For dinner, I attempted to eat a huge ball of mozzarella while Aron gave himself the much easier task of consuming a whole pizza. We also ate some gelato. I tried the persimmon flavour just for the sake of it, but since I hate persimmon, I ordered the pistachio and stracciatella instead.