The Marvelous Facade Of The Milan Duomo

After the tour, we went back out front of the Duomo and took some selfies, including with our guide extraordinaire, Veronica, and basked in the reflection of the sun off the stunning marble.

The style is known as Flamboyant Gothic, which means "flame-like."  The church facade is not as impressive to us as Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, but it's probably the second most impressive to us.  The cathedral largely eschews the Renaissance-style domes prevalent in the rest of the country.

The facade is a pentagon, with six vertical buttresses in expensive pink-white Cardoglia marble from north of Lake Maggiore, which is north of Milan.  The statues on the lowest levels of the facade are early Baroque.  The massive/impressive front door wasn't made until 1907.  I regret two things about that day -- one, that I didn't spend time photographing scenes on the front door, and that I didn't come back just before sunset to see it at dusk.

This is us.

This is us, with Veronica.

Well, I took a couple of

close-ups of the facade.

A precursor to the

Statue of Liberty?

"Lion with pigeon."  Or is it more

appropriately "Pigeon with lion?"

Isn't it glorious.  The answer is yes.

After leaving the Duomo, we hoofed back to our hotel and got ready for dinner.  The restaurant, Ratana, was located near the Vertical Forest buildings.  More importantly, it is a restaurant that Stanley Tucci spent some time in his season one episode of of his marvelous show, "Stanley Tucci, Searching for Italy."  I did not know that when I booked a table, but several tables of Americans filled us in while we dined on more delicious Northern Italian cooking.  

What a great way to end the trip!