Back ….waaaay back in 2011, we went to Milan for spring break. There was a crazy Alitalia sale that popped up after Christmas, and I paid $250/apiece for our tickets from NYC. Insane.
Sigh. This is, without doubt, the easiest age to travel with kids – they were 6 and just about to turn 10. Intrigued by everything, open to almost anything, they can read and go to the bathroom by themselves, don’t need a lot of gear, are not yet cynics…and easiest of all to please in Italy, where a 1 Euro cup of gelato awaits around every corner….
(What you might not know is that Milan, as the center of Lombardy in northern Italy, has been the focus of so much attempted conquest and other warfare over the centuries, has very little ancient, medieval or even Renaissance architecture or infrastructure. The basilica of St. Ambrose is an anomaly in the city. Leonardo’s Last Supper barely survived the Allied bombing of WWII.)
But first, to the Duomo –
Where you can frolic on the roof:
In the crypt of the Duomo – the baptistry where St. Ambrose baptized St. Augustine:
The Metro stop is nearby, and an underground corridor passes the baptistry. You can peek out at the passengers rushing by, and if you are on the other side you could peek in to the baptistry – if you knew it was there.
The Basilica of Sant’Ambrogio – one of the four churches built by Ambrose. (of course what we see is not the original – but is the result of building and rebuilding on the site.)
In other places you can find photos of the body of St. Ambrose in the crypt. I didn’t take his photo though. I probably could have – a little girl stuck her camera right through the grate and got a shot of the vested skeleton and no one stopped her. But it just didn’t feel right to me. Maybe because the boys were with me and I didn’t want to model “getting a good shot” as even Step Two (after “pray”) in “What To do in the Presence of Important Saints’ Relics.”
Sigh.
But I repeat myself. Sorry.
Posts linked on Travel page. But here’s a glimpse.