HARMONIOUS MILAN
PART 2:
II. Faith, Commerce, Art and Love around Duomo Square
I remember, when I arrived to the center of the city, walking by the street Victor Emanuel II, I listened a song “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” of Green Day playing by a singer there, like a soundtrack of my movie of life, and I was just passing by the side of the Milan Cathedral, I was very happy to be there, I can’t believed it, then for me in my mind it was not Boulevard of Broken Dreams, but the Boulevard of Dreams Come True.
In Duomo Square, you can see the Cathedral of Milan that is the most prominent building, in front of this building, crossing the Square, there is a buildings complex called the Merchants Square, a small medieval square. If the Cathedral is in front of you, on your right is the Royal Place of Milan, with an open square in the front and an intern courtyard. In this building are many museums. On your left is the Galleria Victor Emanuel II. In the Square, with two lions protecting it on each side, there is an epic statue of Victor Emanuel II, first king of Italy, leader of the liberation and unification of Italian nation together with the Count of Cavour and Garibaldi. When you see the Cathedral in person, it is bigger than you imagine or you see in photos, I cannot explain in words, you need see it, but is enormous, it’s like a lot of churches together, it’s very large, wide, and tall. The church has a lot of reliefs and statues, I see it a little baroque, but the vertical lines and windows reveal that is gothic style, a gothic style overlaid on an earlier renaissance. Even the door has this style. I touch the door and the marble walls to make sure it was real and not a dream.
At this church you can feel the spirit of Saint Charles Borromeo, archbishop of Milan who was a leading figure of the Counter Reformation, and it was in his honor that my alma mater takes its name, the Royal and Pontifical University of Saint Charles Borromeo, today University of Saint Charles of Guatemala. Here you can also feel the spirit of Saint Ambrose of Milan, Church Father, saint to Catholics, Orthodox, Lutherans and Anglicans, and Bishop of Milan, a Saint that has his own church in Milan, the Basilica of Saint Ambrose, one of the oldest churches in Italy you can visit in the same city. But here, at the Cathedral of Milan, seeing the vertical lines you can feel how you ascend to the haven, until you reach God, as the Virgin Mary ascends too and looks down from the top of the church, form the spire, la Madonnina, the one who is protecting the city under her shadow.
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You can also visit the Galleria Victor Emanuel II. This is a building enormous too, is the most outstanding after the Cathedral of Milan. The front is like a very tall Triumphal Arch. When I saw it, I remembered the Passage Enriquez in my city, Quetzaltenango, inspired in it and constructed by Alberto Porta, Italian architect, even if this building beiger, and while the Passage Enriquez has only one path, the Galleria of Milan has two intersecting paths, and therefore the first has two entrances and the last four.
When you enter in this Galleria, you can find restaurants, stores and museums inside, but only the building is already magnificent, the withe walls have beautiful golden decorations, and the roof is constructed of glass and metal arches, then, the light enters and illuminates your way and your soul. The floor is decorated with beautiful and colorful mosaics, and in the center in the floor is the weapon shield of the Savoy, the dynasty that made the unification of Italy, and in the roof is a glass dome.
When you leave the building trough the entrance on the other side, you arrive at the Scala Square. In the center of the square, you can find a statue of Leonardo Da Vinci surrounded by other statues of different artists. When I looked Da Vinci here standing imposing, I was inspired to see this genius and artist with a great work like I would like to make in my own art. In this same city, in the west, you can find The Last Supper in the church Holy Mary of Grace.
Here by the statue of Da Vinci, you can see that Da Vinci is looking to one building, this is The Scala Theater, a majestic building that in addition to housing a theater, it houses a museum. When I enter here, I was seduced by the sexy and feminine rede of the tether, and I could hear a wonderful music here, even if it’s not a play or performance, because they were there practicing for a future presentation. I could also see here that the design inside was the inspiration for the Municipal Theater of my city, Quetzaltenango, even if the Milanese theater is bigger. The exterior is different, because the theater of my city is like a neoclassical Greek temple, with an original design. I loved to be here in Milan, it was like to be at home, but at the same time, a sublime experience that was completed with a Ukrainian girl that I knew here that seduces me not with the red of the theater but with the white of her soul, music director like Giuseppe Verdi, a Princess that complement the knight adventure that I was writing, like Lucy and Renzo in "The Betrothed" of Alexander Manzoni, writer that like me wrote romantic writings, been he grandchild of a jurist, Cesare Beccaria, like me also grandchild jurist too. Maybe I tell you about these stories with detail later, don’t stop following me and reading me. Comment if you want to know the story of my Lucy.
III. Rome and Christianity come together in Saint Lawrence
In the southwest you can find the columns of Saint Lawrence, an ancient Roman structure, in front of these you can look the Saint Lawrence Basilic, and in the middle you can find the statue of Constantine I the Great, Saint Constantine in the orthodox church, uniting the two worlds, the Roman World and the Christian World. If you walk a little more to the outside, you can see the arch of the ancient Tesinese Gate, a medieval gate that looks like a castle entrance. Here I listened the song “In questo mondo di ladri” of the singer Antonello Venditti, a beautiful song that I listened before, and I felt so happy, because I dreamed for a long time to be there, in Italy, and finally I was there. If you continue by the same street to the Basin of the Canals of Milan you can find the new Tesinese Gate, a neoclassical gate. If you walk in the opposite direction you will arrive to the Turin Course and finally to the Duomo Square.
IV. Modern and Monumental North
To the north of the center, close to the Garibaldi Gate Station, you can find a part of the city more modern. There is a park with a lot of flowers and with a lot of skyscrapers around, there is a creative IBM building like a wicker basket, and there is a building full of trees that is called Vertical Forest. Close of this area, to the south, you can find the New Gate, a medieval gate composed of arches, and the Garibaldi Gate, a neoclassical gate composed of arches and with two neoclassical buildings one on each side that are part of the complex. Between the modern area with skyscrapers and the Garibaldi Gate there is a pedestrian street called Como Curse with picturesque buildings more ancient for the area, where you cand find a lot of restaurants and places to rest.
Most to the northwest of this area you cand walk to the Monumental Cemetery of Milan. It is a museum itself, with thousands of statues, buildings, mausoleums, and artworks. Only to the start you can find a big building like an enormous palace that greets you. You need to climb the stairs and you arrive to a structure with a lot of hallways with monumental statues. In the center, in the Hall of Fame there are a lot of writers, like me, and my favorite, romantic writer like me, Alexander Manzoni.
Do you want to know if there was a big castle to this knight? Do you want to know more about the princess of Milan? Do you want to know how I became a Duke? Then continue reading my blog posts and follow me on social media so you don't miss a thing.
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