Milano

February 16, 2014

We went two Saturdays in a row with out touring and posting to the blog. Sorry, but sometimes life happens.    The 1st week I was still quite busy with end of the month duties. It has also been rainy and perhaps we were a bit lazy. But work in the office is becoming more routine.  New situations do not surprise us.  We are able to perform our duties quicker.  However this past several weeks we have be quite busy closing 7 apartments. It is quite involved not only getting the missionaries moved out, but to get the apartment cleaned up, and fixing the things that we can fix.  Then meeting with the landlord and negotiating about our security deposit and other items that they claim. We have also been working close with the Burgers on opening 7 new apartments.   We need 5 apartments for next group of missionaries that arrive next week.  We are getting 19 new missionaries on Wednesday - 11 of them sisters.

Saturday we decided to explore a different part of Milano.  We 1st drove to a Chinese buffet that the elders were bragging about.  We parked on the roof of the grocery store next door.  This was not like any Chinese buffet in the States.  It was large, interesting, OK, but we probably wont go there again.  It wasn't really Chinese food like we are used to.

We then hopped on the Metro across the street, changed trains twice and got out near Sant' Ambrogio.

St. Ambose is Milano's patron Saint. They say he was so eloquent that bees would fly into his mouth. attracted to his honey tongue   The church was 1st built in 379 AD but today is mostly 10th century, over 1000 years old.

The front door was marvelous but it was protected by glass.

Here you can see some of the carving on the door.

And here are the old knockers! 

 It was a very nice church inside.

 Under the pulpit is Saint Ambrose himself!  Not sure who the other guy is.

 Fabulous mosaics above the pulpit.

 They had this pillar with a snake on top in the main nave.

There was a nice court yard in front of the church.

This guy looks to be my height

  Here is a door in front of the court yard of Saint Ambrose

 We then wandered down the street to find the next destination.

 A door with the ring of the knocker removed.

 Here is the whole door.  Just after I took this picture several people walked out of this door.  not the big door but the door with in the door.  See the lower right hand square and the lines that go down through the kick plate?  This little door is about 6 feet tall.

 Yes, there is graffiti on a a wonderful door.  How sad!

 These blooming trees were a real surprise to me.  This is our 1st sign of spring here in Italy.  For the past 3 months it has been wet and it will freeze about 2 days each week..  I have seen no buds on any trees yet.  These trees must be in some micro climate where the sun heats and reflects off the building behind them.

How about this door and the sculpture above it?

Across the street was this children's toy store with this little guy out front.  I think he is a LEGO Pirate.

 We then found San Lorenzo Maggiore a church built in the 4th century.

 Next door was this enormous Japanese painting above a restaurant.  The eatery is OLD WILD WEST which is a franchise steak house that I have seen in the mall and many other places.  We have not tried it yet.

 The old 4th century ruins lined up alongside the new modern building and billboards were a real contrast.

 Here is part of the old city wall

 San Lorenzo Maggiore is an octagonal church.  Very different that all the others built on the plan of a cross.

 We then walked north to find the Metro station.  Here is another neat church. We did not go in.

 The streets were very crowed with people. Everyone out for the day window shopping.  Across the street was this store.It is not a music store like expected with a name like that.  But a clothing store.  About 50 miles South east is the town of Cremora where Strdivarius lived and built his Violins.  We will go there soon.

Another interesting church.  In the round?

We walked a very long ways and ended up at the Duomo, One metro stop past where I expected to find the Metro.  But it was all very interesting.  We hopped on the Metro and went back to where we parked.  Went grocery shopping and then rode the elevator up to the roof and got our car.  It was a great day.