September 29 - Milano (continued)

To put blogospheric closure on Milan here a few real live touristy pictures of the Duomo.  Like I said before, the highlight was the creepy dead cardinals, but the roof of the Duomo was nice to visit as well.  

Here is one of a gazillion pictures of the front of the Duomo.  Of those, I'm sure this one is in the top 5%.

The roof was 10 euro each to take an elevator to the top, which took 5 seconds.  But being on the roof was spectacular, especially at sunset. 

A view of the city from the roof of the Duomo.

Some photographer was always in the way and a complete nuisance.

Finally, we came back for an evening concert on the Duomo roof and Tom climbed up a spire to get this great picture.  Unfortunately he knocked the head off a statue disrupting the nice concert and we are no longer allowed within 10 miles of the Duomo.

Look at all of the pigeons in the Palazzo.  Also notice the many birds.

September 29 - Milano

We are both pleasantly surprised with Milan.  We expected this to be a boring stop just to see Davinci's The Last Supper.  However, the city has a very nice feel to it, at least the 'old' downtown where we are ataying.  Today we did the tourist thing seeing The Last Supper, some old castle and the Duomo.  I know, I did say that we are not going to see a bunch of museums and churches.  And we're not.  But these were both worth seeing.  Look how fun The Last Supper was.

Tom waiting.

Tom still waiting.

The Duomo was cool because it eerily displayed long since dead bishops.  Check it out.

Skull and everything...cool!  And creepy.  This crusty geezer is over 1600 years old.  He looks good for 1662.  I tried to get him to tell me his secret but he didn't even acknowledge me.  I think he was offended at my bad Italian.  I must practice it.


After a full day we found a magic vending machine in the hotel that served Beck's beer for 2.50 euro. Look how it amazingly transformed Tom from a tired Tom into a rejuvenated and happy Tom.

Ciao for now!

September 27 - Traveling to Italy

The day got off to an interesting start.  Just before it was time to board the flight to Newark Tom could not locate his passport.  After 10 minutes of searching and after all other passengers boarded Tom discovered that his passport was safely stashed in his money belt.  Whew!  We were last to board the plane but at least we were on our way.  If this is a sign of things to come it is going to be a very fun and exciting trip.

I just read an article in The New Yorker about a German photographer, Thomas Struth.  He was commissioned to take a picture of Queen Elizabeth and King Phillip.  Why would I chronicle such an uneventful event as reading a mundane article?  Because the second work of the photographer described in the article was a job at SolarWorld’s SolarFactory 3.  Second billing to the King and Queen of England is quite good.  Even when considering the American confusion over royalty.  Go SolarWorld!