Although it seems like I’ve been in Italy for a long time, I actually had very little time to get out and explore on my own. The last 5 days have been full of meetings and meals with my Oakley and Luxottica coworkers. Today (the day before I leave) was really the only day I could do some shopping and site seeing, and even that was limited to just a couple hours since I still had other business functions to attend to.

The Interior. This first one was pretty creepy. I overheard someone saying this was a statue of someone carrying his own skin. Don’t ask me why or what that was supposed to represent. The cathedral is huge inside. The images in the middle are only two of the dozen or so scenes on the inside. There were also huge paintings and stained glass everywhere (which, like an idiot, I didn’t take any pictures of). The last shot with the nuns is the main podium area. There is also at least one massive crypt underneath the cathedral (that had the remains of some saint) but I wasn’t able to get down to see that since it was closed.

The Exterior. There are amazing marble statues everywhere. Literally. In fact, it seems like the entire exterior is made from carved marble. I could figure out that some of the scenes were based on biblical stories, but some, like the first one here, were just plain obscure and weird. What the heck is that creature is at the bottom. Horse (or dog’s) body? Flippers for feet? Snake-like head? Just weird.

The Roof. The building is free and open to the public, but for €8 you can buy a lift ticket to get up to the roof. There were also stairs on the other side which might have been free, but it was pretty hot and humid out so I went for the elevator. The roof is pretty incredible since there is just detail everywhere you look. There must be thousands of statues all over this building.

The Plaza: And finally, here’s a couple shots of the horse & rider in the middle of the plaza, along with a detail of the lion underneath. The last shot is of one of the adjacent buildings which is full of shops.

For those interested, these were all shot on an iPhone 3GS and processed with the Pic Grunger app. More information about Duomo di Milano can be found on Wikipedia.