Milan and Como
(Click on first photo to start the slideshow)
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Metro (subway) was great. Just a tourist ticket and three stops up to the Duomo Plaza..
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Galleria in Milan started it all---world's first shopping center.
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Once in the Galleria, you must find the bull and stomp his family jewels for good luck!
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Our next day was a tour and LaScala Opera House was first.
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They have a wonderful museum of Italian opera. But we were not allowed to take photos from our box inside.
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Duomo is the third largest Catholic Church, behind Madrid and St. Peters. The front was undergoing cleaning.
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They were having a special mass for one of the actual nails used in the crucifiction. Presumely three now exist, but 17 churches around the world claim to have one of them..
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We had a tour to the roof and it was a lot of climbing! The newly restored pink and white marble is magnificent..
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Over 3000 individual statues are at the top of the spires.
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The very top is a beautiful gold statue.
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Sforzesco Castle was next on our tour. We ended the day at Santa Maria delle Grazie to view the Last Supper painting by Leonardo da Vinci. No photos were allowed!
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Our last day was train trip up to Lake Como and back. Town of Como was beautiful.
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We got the hydrofoil up to Belliago. The 45 minute trip included a few stops at towns along the way.
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Belliago is built on a hillside and many of the streets are stairs only!
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It was up and down all morning.
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Everywhere you turned there were rich colors and shutters!
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Jim found himself a new chess set carved by this gentleman with three different woods from the Lake Como region.
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Small car is a plus in Belliago.
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It does not get any more beautiful than Belliago.
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Next morning it was across the street to the train station for our departure.
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Our Eurostar train pulled in right on schedule for a 5 hour trip to Rome.