The most popular tourist destination in Milan is its amazing cathedral. Before I came here, I had seen pictures of this wonderful church, so I was really excited to see it in real life in all its beauty! I came to Milan from Turin by bus, arriving at Lampugnano bus station, and, from there, I just took the subway directly to the Duomo. In this way, the Duomo (that's what the cathedral is called) would be the first thing that I would see here in Milan. When I came out of the subway and I saw the Duomo... wow! I felt so impressed to see that building! I couldn't breathe.
That first day, I didn't enter into the church, instead preferring to just take it in from the outside and walk around the square. I should say it's a pleasure walk through the streets of Milan and to be able to admire its beautiful buildings, with their doors, trades, and all those beautiful architectonic details. On the other hand, with regards to the pace of life in that city and the general behaviour of the people, I liked it less than Torino. Because it's a bigger city (much bigger! ), the pace of life is really fast, and you can see that there's more movement and stress. However, all of those things couldn't take away from the beauty of this city's cathedral.
A little bit of history...
This amazing cathedral has Gothic-style architecture. I had already seen several churches and cathedrals of this style because there are a lot in France. In Mexico, however, our cathedrals and churches are more often than not built in a baroque style, colonial. However, the Duomo in Milan is much more impressive than all of those. It is normal due to its size, it's the second biggest cathedral in the world (the largest can be found in Seville, Spain).
As you can imagine, a cathedral of this size needed several years to be dedicated to its construction. In fact, its construction started at the end of the 14th century (1386, to be precise) and it ended at the start of the 19th century. So... a little more than four centuries was needed to finish the construction of this cathedral! And, in fact, there were some embellishments and touches that were completed during the last century.
By the way, I realised that the streets that are close to the cathedral were planned using this building as a point of reference. That's because, in the beginning, the Duomo was being thought as the central point of Milan. Also, a friend told me that, during several decades, there was even a law that prohibited the construction of any building higher than the Duomo. So, you can really understand the importance of this monument.
The visit - part I: The Duomo
It's true when people say "you don't have to pay to look", but in the case of visiting the Duomo, that's not completely true. I say this because you don't have to pay anything if you just want to look at the building's incredible façade. You can stay there looking at it, observing every detail. I think you should visit this monument more than once in your lifetime to be able to truly appreciate the beauty of it. It's a really huge monument, but it's also full of sculptures, columns, gargoyles and other architectonic details.
Well, this is the case for the outside of the building but... what about the inside? Well, on the first day I realised that you have to pay to enter the Duomo. Unlike Paris' Notre-Dame Cathedral, where entry is free and they only charge if you want to climb up the towers, access to Milan's Cathedral costs 2€. If you would like to have a guided tour, it costs 6€ in total, or if you want to climb the Duomo's towers to appreciate the panoramic view of the city from there, you have to pay 18€.
Honestly, it's not particularly expensive for a visit to a monument like this, but I was surprised (and not in a good way... ) that you have to pay to able to visit the site itself. Money, money, money... Italians are misers.
If you want to come in, listen to your mum, wear a sweater!
Mums are always saying "wrap up warm, wear a sweater, you are going to be cold". Well, in Milan's cathedral you will need to remember that. With the excuse that you must dress "appropriately" to enter the cathedral (understand that means no short sleeve t-shirts, etc. ), they even sell you a kind of plastic kimono... for 2€! And, watch out, as those 2€ are not included in the price of your ticket. Besides, I'm sure that this "kimono" doesn't even costs 50 cents...
Obviously, the reason for this "dress code" is just another money-making scheme. As an old man behind me in the queue to enter the cathedral said: "It's been a long time since Milan was a catholic city, it's also not inappropriate to dress with a sleeveless shirt or t-shirt. If we were talking about someone wearing a dress with a deep neckline, a really short skirt or something like that... well, maybe I could understand it (maybe... ), but, anyway, my first reaction when I knew about this dress code was: I won't enter the cathedral and that's that! "
But, walking just few steps further, I said that it would be a shame being in that city, having travelled across the ocean to be here in Europe and not visit it just for this reason. So, I found a solution with regards to the infamous kimono!
The Cathedral's floor: made of marble.
I went to the door where the tourists were exiting the cathedral and I asked a girl if she could give me her kimono. The first one said no, because she wanted to enter again, but the second one gave it to me with a huge smile. She was really generous with me. In fact, when I asked her for the kimono her boyfriend told her not to give it to me because it had cost 2€ and he would sell it to me for the same price. He said all of that in Italian but I understood it perfectly. However, I faked that I didn't understand it, did my best Puss in Boots eyes (the cat from Shrek) and she gave it to me. So, if you are going to enter the cathedral, wear a shirt with sleeves, a sweater, or a scarf to cover your shoulders. As a last resort, ask someone for a second hand kimono like I did. What do you have to lose?
Where do I buy my ticket?
You can go to one of the numerous ticket offices that there are at the cathedral. There are 5 or 6 in total where you can buy entrance ticket (or kimonos). But this is important, if you don't go early, you need to have enough patience to wait your turn in a very long line (yes, you won't be the only tourists wanting to visit this place, eh).
A little piece of advice that I could give you is go to ticket office number 3, which is just behind the cathedral. As this one is "somewhat hidden", there are normally less people at this one than at the others. But even still, nothing is perfect: although the waiting time will be shorter, the people who work in that office aren't really that nice... You can really tell that they love their job!
The first day I arrived in Milan, I asked for a city map (that was free) and the man who was at that office gave it to me without even looking at me in the eye and he didn't give it to me by hand. His attitude was more like: "just take this and go, you are bothering us". But for instance in Torino the office was so different! They were smiling, very nice, etc. I could understand that Milan is a bigger city and more crowded than Torino but a minimum of niceness would be great. The second day I came back there (because there were less people) to buy my ticket and... same man, same attitude. But I'm glad that not all the Italians are like this, I met really nice people.
The visit - part II: Duomo of Milan Museum
If you thought that when you just walk around the inside of the cathedral you just ended your visit that not true! You weren't right! The 2€ ticket that you bought also allowed you to visit the museum of the Duomo.
Personally, during trips, I'm not a huge fan of museums, but when I was leaving the cathedral, I don't know why, I looked at my ticket and I saw that it said "Cathedral + Museum". In fact, I hadn't thought about going there, but I wanted to go when I saw a girl asking where the museum was, so I just followed her example. It was a very good decision!
It's a big museum with many rooms. Due to the fact that I visited the cathedral quite late, by the time I arrived at the museum, I didn't have much time to see it all. In this museum, you will be able to appreciate religious pieces of art.
There were several pieces that really captivated me. One of those was a Mexican piece made from tropical bird feathers.
Everything is made of feathers!
Maybe in the photo it doesn't look so good, but it was actually really impressive seeing such a detailed piece, the human bodies were done so precisely. My question is how much time would have been needed to complete them.
This is one of the first items that you can admire when you enter this museum. This evangelic piece is made of ivory and has some precious jewelled incrustations.
These paintings and their making in clay also caught my attention. You can appreciate the differences between the details of the sculptures and the paintings. For example, the expressions of the people are not the same when you look at them in the sketch as when you look at the final sculpture.
There were also gargoyles and several statues.
All the pieces in the museum are religious art. The diversity of the artefacts there really surprised me: from paintings and sculptures to book covers and canvases.
General recommendations:
- To enjoy your visit to the maximum, go there as early as possible. If, like me, you don't like to wake up early, you could go after midday. Then, you could take a break and eat in one of the restaurants or cafés close to the Duomo and finish your tour at the museum. I strongly recommend going to both places - they both are really interesting.
- The famous kimono... just wear a sweater, or a shirt with sleeves! Worst comes to worst, wear a scarf to cover those parts of your body which are, according to the cathedral's tourist committee, such a temptation... like the shoulders. Besides, instead of paying for an expensive "kimono" made in China, you could buy a delicious Italian ice-cream.
- If you go in summer, be sure to check the opening hours. I looked on the website and it seemed to me that they aren't the same all year round. When I went there, I entered the cathedral at approximately 2pm. I left the cathedral at 4:30pm and, as the museum was due to close at 5:30pm, I had just one hour to visit it.
In conclusion, both the cathedral and museum are worth visiting. You can, in theory, visit both in 2 hours, maybe two and a half hours.
