Milan – South of Piazza del Duomo
The area south of Piazza del Duomo does not have any important monuments, and the streets aren't that interesting either. The Church of San Satiro, located on the busy shopping Via Torino, is the work of the city's most eminent architect from the Renaissance period, Bramantego, commissioned him a year 1476. By joining an elongated oratorio, belonging to this 9th-century Romanesque church, do transeptu, Bramante created a basilica with a long nave. The architect obtained the illusion of an apse by placing an illusionist painting on the back wall.
Located five minutes away, on the Via Torino block, Ambrosiana Picture Gallery (nd.-pt. 9.30-17.00; 4000L) was founded by another member of the Borromeo family, Cardinal Federico Borromeo, at the beginning of the 17th century. The cardinal collected old manuscripts and created one of the largest libraries in Europe, but today you usually come here to visit his art gallery. It bears a clear mark on his taste: he liked the painting of Jan Brueghl, 16th-century Venetians and quite mediocre followers of Leonardo. Among the many mid-range canvases is a rarely reproduced painting by Leonardo, Portrait of a musician, Raphael's sketch for his Athens School and considered the first Italian still life painting by Caravaggio. The most original exhibit of the museum, however, is a lock of Lucrezia Borgia's hair. Since, when Byron saw them, he concluded, that she had the most beautiful hair, he had ever seen in his life, and from the library, where the lock was then kept, he took one hair as a souvenir, they are stored in a glass vial.
Crossing Via Torino and Via Mazzini and following one of the busiest sections, departing from Piazza del Duomo streets, Corso di Porta Romano, you come to the church of San Nazaro. The church itself is not very interesting, but serving as his vestibule stern, octagonal chapel, was the family church of one of the most famous traitors in the history of the city, leader Giangiacomo Trivulzio. To take revenge on your rival, Lodovico Sforzy, he led the attack of the French troops on Milan and, as a reward, was appointed governor of the city by the victorious French. The tombs of the Trivulzio family are located in niches in the wall, and the inscription above Giangiacomo's grave reads: “This is where this one rests, who never rested during his lifetime: silence”.
Rising behind San Nazaro, Ospedale Maggiore was once known in the city as Ca 'Granda (Great House). In this one building, according to the ambitious design of the Florentine architect Filarete, all the hospitals and charitable institutions of the city were to be located. His introduction to Milan of Renaissance architecture was not shared by local architects, who, as soon as Filarete returned to Florence, they put clearly visible late gothic elements on the facade. By going inside, it is easier to orientate yourself in the Filarete project: eight small courtyards form two cross-shaped figures, which are separated by a rectangular courtyard. Today, the building houses the University of Milan.
North of Piazza del Duomo
An object almost as famous as the cathedral in Milan is built on a cross plan, covered with glass, semicircular roof, demonstratively rich Galleria Vittorio Emanuele. It was built in 1865 according to a design by Giuseppe Mengoni, who fell off the roof a few days before the opening ceremony and killed himself. Despite, that the prices in the cafes are astronomical here, worth indulging in a drink, so that I can watch the people passing here. If you drink your drink long enough, you can see people walking slowly or in a hurry, depending on the time of day, almost all Milanese. In the central part of the gallery, under the glass dome, on the floor there are signs of the zodiac placed on a circle. According to the locals, stepping on Taurus testes brings good luck, and it certainly belongs to a good tone.
The left arm of the gallery cross leads towards Piazza dei Mercanti. In the Middle Ages, this was the commercial center of Milan and until the transfer of Bors (stock exchange) from the 16th-century Palazzo dei Giureconsulti on Via Mercanti to the north, na Piazza degli Affari, at the end of the last century, It also acted as the financial center of the city. Guilds and other municipal organizations once housed in the medieval palaces surrounding the square today. Nad placem dominuje Palace of the Reason, erected at the beginning of the 13th century to celebrate the autonomy obtained by Milan from the emperor. The top floor was added four centuries later by another emperor, Maria Teresa of Austria.
The main part of Galleria Vittorio Emanuele overlooks Piazza della Scala, where it is famous all over the world, built according to the design of Piermarini, La Scala opera. The first season started in the year 1778 a performance of an opera by the then very famous composer Antonio Salieri. This name is known even today (mainly thanks to the art of Peter SchafTer Amadeus), though more because of his rivalry with Mozart, than his music. Despite, that the protests of the 1960s led to a certain opening in the official artistic policy of the city authorities, La Scala remains the center of the social and cultural life of the Milanese elite and a place as exclusive as ever (tickets reach astronomical prices). A visit to a small museum, which has, among others. posthumous masks of composers, plastic casts of conductors' hands and an irregular statue of Puccini in a huge mantle, it is the only chance to get inside the opera.
Another 19th-century hero lived just one street away from La Scala, in Via Morone, street block, which now bears his name. Dom Alessandro Manzoniego (Tue-Fri. 9.00-12.00 and 14.00-16.00; Free entrance), author of the most famous Italian novel of the last century, Wedding, now houses a small museum of the writer's memorabilia, which, however, will not be of interest to someone, who has not read the book.
Via Manzoni's main attraction is the Museo Poldi Pezzoli (wt. and Wed. 9.30-12.30 and 14.30-18.00, Thu-Sun. 9.30-12.30 and 14.30-17.30; 4000L), where there is a collection of applied art and painting, amassed by the 19th-century collector Gian Giacomo Poldi Pezzoli. Most of the collections consist of rather boring halls full of clocks, watches, tableware and jewelry, but the Salone Dorato upstairs contains many intriguing images. One of them is the portrait of the rather corpulent San Nicola da Tolentino by Piero della Francesca, part of the altar, on which the artist worked intermittently by 15 years. Opposite are two works by Botticelli. One is a picture of the gentle Madonna with a book, which is one of the many variations he painted at the end of the 15th century on the theme of Mary with Child, and the other is painted at the end of the artist's life, in response to the monk Savonarola's campaign against his earlier, more humanistic works, fascinating The Descent from the Cross. In the same room you can also find one of the most famous Italian portraits, Portrait of a young woman Pollaiuolo. The artist's interest in anatomy is visible in the delicate line of bones under the skin of this ideal Renaissance woman..