Our last day in Milan, and Italy, for this trip. We spent it in a museum and shopping.
The Museo del Novecento is dedicated to twentieth century Italian artists. Located in the Duomo Piazza, it is calm and interesting. We liked the art, maybe learned a little but didn’t understand everything, and felt much less overwhelmed and tired than we had when in the Sforza Castle, yesterday. Oh, and did I mention, we were floating on the cloud of the midterm election results?
In the slideshow, I alternated art with photos I took of the Duomo from the windows of the Museo. Truly, one of the wonderful aspects of this museum is the views of the cathedral.
We finished our art viewing and headed into the cloudy afternoon for La Rinascente, the upscale department store that intialted the Compasso d’Oro awards. The top floor has cafes, and we had lunch with, you guessed it, Duomo views.
We did a smidgen of shopping. You enter on the ground floor which holds cosmetics counters and smells just like that. Escalating up are men and woman’s floors with niches for the top designers. That is definitely too intimidating a shopping experience for me. The floor with the cafes has specialty foods, though, and we did a little shopping there. The next floor down was mostly dedicated to Christmas, and it was fun to browse. I was sorely tempted by some nutcrackers, but they were not actually Italian. If I didn’t have a full suitcase, I’d have given more consideration to Napoli ceramics shaped and glazed to be shiny poinsettias.
One floor down, is dedicated to La Rinascente merchandise, which I think meant small, Italian designers, and I was drawn to a light fairisle knitted sweater by an Italian designer from Bologna. So, Mark waited patiently in the special spouse chair, while I tried it on. I’ll keep you guessing about the outcome.
He’s not Meryl Streep, but they do have Vassar in common! This is the center hall of the Galleria. It was the location of the fabulous scene near the end of The Devil Wears Prada II, when Amanda Priestly leaves the event, at night ,and strolls past the designer stores in all her magnificence.
One of my last ambitions was some photos of the Duomo after sunset:
Even with the scaffolding on the side, it is a beautiful site. That scaffolding, by the way, has a video screen on it. It is selling Dom Peringnon:
It’s not cheap to maintain a cathedral! Capitalism helps, I imagine.
My last wish was accomplished, and we had only to grant Mark’s wish: gelato one more time. Off to Venchi, one of the two best in this area. (We’ve been a little disappointed to not see as much homemade gelato in this city.)
We’ve packed and prepared for an early start and a really long day of travel tomorrow.
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