Milan Cathedral

Okay, so I know that Europe is full of impressive churches and cathedrals, but I've seen enough that I was starting to get a little bored of them. But wow! The Milan Cathedral is amazing!! When you first come out of the Metro station at Duomo Station, the first thing you see across the piazza is the cathedral. It doesn't appear as large as it really is, because it doesn't have any obvious towers or turrets sticking up. What it does have is amazingly intricate stone work. You start to get an idea of how large it really is when you start walking towards it. It takes longer than you might think to cross the piazza until you arrive before the front doors. Then you go inside, and that is when it hits you: this place is MASSIVE! The columns are 20+feet in diameter, and there appears to be enough seating for half the city! Once you've walked down the main part of the nave, you still have the apse to see, and this is mostly taken up with a gigantic pipe organ. The stained glass windows are gorgeous.

view of the front from Duomo Piazza

stained glass window

massive columns

Apologies for the lack of pictures from the interior, but after taking these I was told by an annoyed looking Italian lady that you must buy a ticket to take photos inside. The ticket was 3 euros, and I didn't feel like paying to take more pictures. But you can get an idea of the size of this place by using the people for scale.

One thing that is worth paying for is going up to the roof terraces, which basically means you either climb 245 stairs (yes, I did count them!) or taking an elevator to the roof. From there you can walk around on the roof of the cathedral and get stunning views of Milan. For me, this was about the coolest thing! Walking around on the roof of a cathedral! Not something I'd ever imagined doing, yet here I was! It really felt like being on top of Milan, even though there are skyscrapers much taller than the cathedral, they are several kilometers away. 

some of the impressive stonework one can see up close when you go up on the roof.

Golden statue on the peak of the roof: tallest point on the cathedral.

Part of the walkways on the roof.

View down into part of the piazza and the entrance to an expensive department store.

Part of the skyline of Milan

One of the many gargoyles and statues on the roof

Part of the stairway to the roof

Peak of the roof