We took the train from Venezia to Milano and picked up some dinner at the Milano station itself before taking a taxi to our hotel. The next day, Dario met us at our hotel in the morning and he came equipped with his father's car - which turned out to be huge benefit for going around town. We first went to the Duomo. Milano's duomo is different from any of the duomos we'd seen so far in Italy. Its in gothic style - certainly an influence from further north across the alps. It is majestic in form and appearance and the dimensions are awesome - 135 spires and 96 gargoyles! Gothic structures have soaring roofs and spires, more vertical than horizontal, and allow a lot of light in. This duomo, however, had Roman influences too, and was quite dark inside, the little light coming in through the stained glass windows. Dario showed us a skylight high up on the roof from where a ray of sunlight came through and cast a spot of light at different areas of the floor depending on the time of day, thus acting like a natural sundial. Viviana met us here (she had to sacrifice her weekend sleep and travel from really far just to meet us). We went to the rooftop of the duomo and a wonderful sight lay before us. The place is so high, we got a panoramic view of the city extending in all directions.

It was great getting together with Viviana and Dario once again after Philadelphia in December 1998 - what a milan!!

We also saw the historic La Scala opera house (where Maria Callas and Pavarotti, among others made their debuts) which is across a square with a statue of Leonardo da Vinci, often considered as Milan's favourite son, and walked around the shops of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II to buy some Italian music CDs before walking several blocks to Castello Sforzesco, a fortress which dates back to the 15^th century.

If we had the time, we would have liked to visit the Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnica "Leonardo da Vinci" - a museum with a rich collection devoted to da Vinci's inventions. But there's only so much that you can do in a couple of hours. Besides we had to leave something for the next visit!

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