The Great Duomo of Milano

The central figure in Milano is the cathedral. Cathedrals in Italian are called catedrale or duomo, so this is known as the Duomo of Milano. It was built in the Middle Ages over a 300-year period. It's magnificent, awe-inspirting, jaw-dropping.

OK, now to some fun stuff.

Inside the cathedral there were, of course, confessionals, where people go to confess their sins to the priest. The priest sits in the middle area, which you see in the second photo. I guess priests get hungry too, considering what the tin of cookies I see half hidden in there!

On the main door of the cathedral are many ornate figures, including the ones you see here. One of them has a very shiny leg. That's because for centuries people have seen that leg as lucky if you rub it. Irene is demonstrating how to rub the lucky leg.

In the next photo you can see that I decided that touching the leg wasn't enough luck for me. I had to kiss it. I didn't quite kiss it, though, because I was thinking about the millions of people that touched that leg before me. Who knows where those peoples' hands have been??

Inside the cathedral, I also saw an announcement that Jesus is now on the web. However, they didn't provide his blog site address, so I'll have to update that later when I figure it out.

I'm in Milano, Italy!

OK, well I was in Milano a couple of days ago. (Now I am visiting mom and sis south of there above Tuscany.) My friends Irene, Garry and their son Arthur, who's seven, met me up in Milan. They live near me in DC but they were on separate flights. We spent the day going around Milano. Here I am reclaiming my right to my castle. The locals call it Castello Sforzesco, named after the ruling family Sforza in the Middle Ages, but they like to conveniently forget that the Sforzas left me their castle in their will. I've had central heating installed, satellite TV large HDTVs in every room, and I had the walls painted from that garish Middle Ages gray brick to bright pastels!

People keep walking in and out of the castle as if they think it's a tourist attraction. Time to pull out the cannons again!

Speaking of nostalgia (were we?), see the bench that I'm sitting on? Well, a few years ago when my wife and I were not yet married, we used to sit on this park bench behind the Castello Sforzesco and...uhm...chatted. Well, we used our lips, anyway. OK, we kissed, all right? For hours on end! There, I said it, I'm a kisser.

I look lonely there, don't I? Soon I'll be back home and I'll be kissing some more!