Milan is a city of beauty and fashion

From Monte Napoleone to the Arch of Peace

The main city of Italy in the spring is Milan. It is the capital of fashion and design around the world. Almost every spring for many years I managed to go to this interesting city.

In April-May, Milan hosts a large exhibition of furniture manufacturers and everything related to furniture. This year the exhibition was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The exhibition was supposedly moved to the summer and there is a chance that I will be able to attend this event.

But now I want to recall those first visits to Milan, when I was just starting to recognize this city. We arrived in Milan not with a large group of 7 people and everyone had different interests. I was drawn to inspect everything around and my friends were drawn to the side of the street called Monte Napoleone. This is one of the most important shopping streets in Milan where shops of the most famous world brands of clothing, perfumes, accessories and more are concentrated.

I was not opposed to bringing our group to the area of ​​the most fashionable shops, and having agreed to meet with the group a few hours later I went to study Milan.

It turns out that the start of my walking journey began almost in the very center of the city.

Here is located one of the most striking symbols of Milan - the Duomo Cathedral. This is a very beautiful building, which was built for almost 300 years. This is not surprising, since almost all Gothic cathedrals were built for a very long time. Milan Cathedral is very beautiful. In front of it is a large area that allows you to see the main facade in all details.

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And there are a lot of details. The cathedral is faced with marble and decorated with a huge number of sculptures and bas-reliefs. In the rays of the sun against the blue sky, the cathedral looks like it is sugar.

Marble reflects and changes light well. When the sun goes down and everything turns warm orange hues, the cathedral also changes. Marble turns from white to warm pink.

At night it seemed to me yellow.

Next to the cathedral is another feature of the central square of Milan - the indoor shopping gallery of Vitorio Emanuel II. If you go through this gallery from the Duomo square, you will go directly to the La Scala theater (by the way, this name translates as a staircase). The fact is that before the theater there used to be a large staircase and, as a result, the theater itself was called so.

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After strolling around the main square of Milan, I noticed an interesting building in the distance. Some spire on the fortress wall! It needs to be studied.

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I went towards this spire. It turned out to be another very interesting and important object for Milan. This is the castle of Sforza. This is the name of the residence of the Dukes of Milan from the Sforza dynasty.

By the way, the great Leonardo DaVinci himself had a hand in the construction of this fortress.

When I look at these walls, I involuntarily see the walls of the Moscow Kremlin in them. The only differences are that tent roofs are built over the Russian Kremlin. The walls themselves and the battlements on them are exactly the same. And do not be surprised at this. The fact is that the Russian Kremlin was built by attracted Italian architects.

Passing through the castle, I went to a large park. There were a lot of people in the park. Someone was reading a newspaper, someone was playing sports. Most likely there are more local residents.

Passing through the park, I saw a large arch. This is the so-called Arch of Peace.

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The construction of this arch was begun at the direction of Napoleon in 1807 in honor of the victories of his troops on the Apennine Peninsula. The arch was to become at the same time the informal 14th gate of Milan. Through them, the emperor of France intended to solemnly enter the city after the completion of the arch. There is an opinion that the archway is oriented along the axis Paris - Milan and overlooks the historical axis of Paris. In the book “A Celebration That Is Always With You” Ernest Hemingway expresses the idea that the Arch of Peace (he calls it the Arch of Sermion) is on the same line with the Carruzel Arch and the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

Here is such a small walk in the center of Milan turned out to me instead of shopping. Now, when I am sitting at home in self-isolation mode, I am very pleased to look at photos from sunny Milan and recall my feelings from a former visit to Italy.

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