From the Valle d’Aosta we explored some more of Northern Italy’s wine regions on our way to the city of Milan. Below are shots from the Valtellina region of Lombardy.
The city of Milan is super modern and polished. There is so much shopping it almost felt like we were back home in the US somewhere. Some of the highlights included visiting the Sforzesco Castle which now houses several museums and is the picture at the top of the post. Leonardo da Vinci was commissioned by the Duke of Milan in the late 1400’s to paint the mural of the Mulberry Trees below. The picture is somewhat underwhelming until you realize that this entire room was whitewashed and plastered over for nearly 500 years until it was discovered that a Da Vinci mural existed beneath. There is still restoration work in progress uncovering some really interesting sketches on one of the walls.
Also of note in Milan is the Duomo Cathedral that dominates one of the central plaza’s in the city. We were surprised by the guards who were making sure all of the women had their shoulders covered before entering the church. Interesting. The detail on the stained glass was like nothing we had seen. This was a pretty magnificent place overall.
In Pursuit of 15 