The rental car process in Milan was relatively easy, with the exception that the agent told me definitively the car is in parking stall 164. The keys didn't work on that car, but Carol did hear the doors unlock on the car in 165. . .close as you'll get in Italy, so we took it.
(Side note: I always feel like Europeans disapprove of Americans hiring rental cars in Europe, as though we can't handle the narrow roads, the confusing street signs, the incredibly tight parking spaces, and general hubbub of the cities. Of course, most of the disapproval seems to come from car rental agents.)
It was 98 degrees, which is quite a shock to the system coming from 70 degree weather in Amsterdam.
Our Tours by Locals guide, Veronica, sent me a What's App suggesting we park in Piazza Diaz, as it was near the Duomo. We got there easily, parked, and were pleasantly surprised how close we were to the Duomo. Just about one block away.
We were early, so we broke our cardinal food rule and went into a packed McDonalds on the Piazza Duomo to get hydrated and have a quick bite before the tour. We met up with Veronica (another fabulous guide we highly recommend).
(Yes, I understand someone is laughing because, after being away from Italy for 15 years, my first meal after returning was from McDonald's, a place I refuse to eat in the States. As John Madden once said during a football game, "irony can be so ironic.")
The big mistake I made was looking up at the Duomo into the hot sun. Craning my neck made me light-headed as the blinding sun dazed and confused me. I drank some water, but my supplies were starting to run low.
After getting the tickets, Veronica took us up the elevator to the roof. We love walking on top of cathedrals, and with all the sculptures and ornamentation up top, the Milan Duomo is one of the best rooftops we have been on.
But I wasn't feeling good. At all. I was pretty out of it, and frankly worried I would pass out. A huge church roof on an incredibly hot day was not a good mix with how I was already feeling.
Veronica was doing a great job guiding, but I was at the point where I let Carol do all the listening, while I took random photos and hoped not to crash. The heat, the lack of sleep, the bad food all were a stew of problems.
(Editor: It's been pretty hot in Virginia this summer. Blogger: Yeah, but I've either been inside my air conditioned office working, or in the cooler Blue Ridge mountains most of the time. When I go kayaking, I'm on the water early, and done before the heat of the day.)
Let me tell you, I was all but knocked out by the heat.
The roof of the Duomo is amazing, but Carol and Veronica decided we needed to cut the tour short. Thanks to Veronica's intervention with security, we took the elevator back down, and went into the Cathedral.
We sat in the pews as I drank lots of water. Veronica knew where a fountain is nearby, so she kindly refilled my water bottle multiple times while talking Carol through the inside of the third-largest cathedral in Europe (after the Vatican and Seville).
After a while, I felt good enough to tour the Cathedral. The most amazing thing we saw was the sculptured statue of Saint Bartholomew Flayed, by Marco d'Agrate in 1562.
It depicts Bartholomew after he'd been flayed alive. It is a ghastly yet endearing sculpture, All of his muscles, veins, and tendons are exposed, and he is holding flayed skin like a stole. It is one of the most impressive early works on human anatomy. Many tourists blew past it, not knowing what it depicted. But we lingered.
We covered the rest of the inside of the Cathedral. I was feeling marginally better, albeit not wonderful. We released Veronica from the rest of her guiding duties, as I was in no shape to wander the streets of Milan.
To be fair to me (Editor: that's a hard task), I was dehydrated, running on a lack of sleep, and hadn't eaten properly that day. And, it was godawful hot. I'm just glad I didn't pass out.
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