Duomo

In the last post, I began a story about training the new missionaries.  Let me continue.  On Friday, August 2nd we had to continue our new missionary training by preparing the lunch, and driving down to Modena.  Here all of the new missionaries and their trainers from the southern part of the mission were gathered.  This also was a 2 hour drive to a location that neither of us have ever been.  We are very thankful for TomTom in our car.  He led us directly to the Modena chapel with no wrong turns!
We took card of the lunch and our two parts of the training, cleaned up and headed back to Milano.

Driving on Italian roads is a real experience.  The Autostrada usually has three lanes going in each direction.  the right hand lane is completely consumed with trucks and the also are in the middle lane about half of the time.  The right hand lanes is typically going about 80 km/hr, the middle land is traveling 100 - 120 km/hr, and the left hand lane is anywhere from 120 - 200 km/hr.  I was seeing these speed limit signs that indicated each lane had a different speed limit, but I now have learned that these blue speed signs are the minimum speed, while the red speed signs are the maximum speed signs.  The Italian drivers are very aggressive.  It is OK to pull into the left lane to pass, but you better get right back into the middle lane immediately because they will be right on your tail going 60 km/hr faster than you.

Another different thing with their toll roads is a safety pull out.  About every 2 - 4 miles you will see a safety pull out where cars can pull over with a flat tire or other car problems.  There is next to no room to slow down to pull into one and no room to speed up pulling out of one.  It is also a law that if you pull into one and get out of the car you must have an orange safety vest on.

Here is a very interesting new bridge that we passed under on our way to Modena

 

Here is a very modern train station that we passed.  Bright white with undulating patterns. 

 

 

We got back to the office Friday about 5.  checked our email, took care of a few items and then we drove to the next town to a nice restaurant for my Birthday dinner.  We had an antipasto, 1st plate and 2nd plate.  Very good. We split each serving and it was wonderful  We left the restaurant about 8 pm just as all of the Italians were coming in to eat.

 

On Saturday moved into the new apartment, did laundry and then took off for the Duomo.  To get there we drove about 6 miles to a metro station, parked the car and took of on the subway.  As we cam up out of the metro station - Bang!  there is was!

 

 

This is the famous Milano Duomo - 3rd largest cathedral in the world. 

 

 And when we turned to  the left there was the Galleria - Famed shopping center of the rich and famous.

The spires are just breath taking

The building is enormous.  It took over 500 years to build 

Inside there are stained glass windows everywhere.

 

The floors are very intricate marble

And the organ is stunning.

After walking inside the Dumo for almost an hour, we stepped outside and walked around the square.

 The galleria was amazing.  Especially if you like to window shop.  Most of the big name designer stores were there.  Prada, Guuchi, and others that I have never heard of.

I took this picture of one of the several the Prada stores just for Grandma Ruth.

Even the floor inside the open air galleria was amazing.

When we walked around a bit and were on the way back to the metro entrance we notices that yes, the Duomo has a giant TV Billboard on it. It just doesn't seem right.