Travel, Photography, Life

The Duomo, New Year’s Eve, Wandering the Streets of Milan, Recycling Beauty, the Teatro alla Scala, and We’re Off to Romania

A week in Photos

Magical Milan — what a place! After a couple of years of not leaving the United States, this place has revitalized my soul. 2022 was a year of great losses for my husband and I, and was probably the roughest year of my life, but I am learning to embrace the reality that the only thing that stays constant in life is change. And a change in location to someplace as beautiful as Italy is a balm for the soul.

Our dear friend, Pete, married a lovely woman from Romania last year and they bought a place in Bucharest, where they intend to spend a good part of the year. So, when he inivited us to join him and several of the new Romanian family and friends for New Years in Milan, followed by a trip to Romania, where we would be able to see the country through Dana’s eyes, we were so excited.

Our first day, the jet lag was pretty tough, but we got out and saw the Duomo Cathedral Plaza, the Galleria and just got our bearings.

The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II is Italy’s oldest active shopping gallery and was built architect Giuseppe Mengoni between 1865 and 1877. It was constructed during the “Eiffel Tower era” and is built of glass and steel.

Truly a thing of beauty, the Galleria arcs towards the sky in a light-filled corridor. It houses the first Prada store along with many other famous designer stores, like Gucci.

The next day, we found what became one of our favorite spots to eat — “Papa Francesco’s.” He lured us in with talk of the neighboring restaurant being “microwave food.” He promised fantastic pasta, and he delivered! That spinach ravioli was to die for.

After lunch, we visited the Leonardi3 Museum, a small museum crammed with Da Vinci’s drawings and engineering masterpieces. What a brilliant man he was. We think of him as a painter, but he was also a “thinker.”

After the museum we ambled through the Galleria and oohed and aaahed at decorations on the store fronts.

And as we passed this restaurant, some of the “Romanian Contingency” was dining inside.

The Duomo Plaza was all lit up for the holidays and the “Christmas Mart” was still going full-tilt.

Our friends have a new baby and I had a little fun taking photos of them and the baby.

That night, the whole crew went out for dinner together. Dana’s brother bought all of the women roses.

The next day was New Year’s Eve. The girls all had our hair and make-up done.

Then we had a fancy celebration at the Mandarin Oriental, with live music and lots of champagne. We were up until 2:30 in the morning.

The next day, nobody was up before noon. In the late afternoon, we headed out for a stroll through the “blue hour.”

The next day, we went to the “Recycling Beauty” exhibit at the Fondazione Prada art museum, where several works of ancient art which had been “recycled” into new art were on display (story coming soon!).

One of my favorite exhibits (part of the main museum, not the “recycled” section) was of these “magic mushrooms.” If you’d like to see a little video of them, you can see it at my instagram page (I can’t imbed videos here).

The next day, we did a tour of the Teatro all Scala, the grand theatre of Milan. We were lucky enough to arrive during a dress rehearsal of the Nutcracker Ballet. The Teatro alla Scalla, built in 1778, is considered to be one of the premiere opera and ballet houses in the world. Anyone who is anyone wants to perform here.

Apparently, the best seats in the house are in the “Chicken Coop,” which have hardly any views but have the best sound. The critics will sit there and will stop the show with whistling when someone makes a mistake on stage or with applause when something good happens.

The museum was filled with old instruments, some of which were never played, and paintings of the famous singers. Rosina Storchio (in the painting) was the first “fashionista” diva of Milan. Everyone wanted to dress like her.

We were lucky enough to arrive during a dress rehearsal for the nutcracker. It was fun to see the dancers on the stage. (Again — more photos and a story coming soon).

Our tour guide also walked us through the Galleria again and pointed out the Prada store and told us about how it started off as a small store right here but is now a huge fashion icon all over the world.

There is also a tradition of stepping on a mosaic of a bull and turning around on your heel three times. People were lined up in droves to do this.

After the Galleria, we toured the grand Duomo Cathedral. The Duomo towers over Milan, an explosion of intricate carvings in marble which was imported from Candoglia. Construction began in 1386 and took over 500 years. 3,400 statues, 135 gargoyles and 700 figures adorn the Milan Duomo,

That evening, we strolled the streets again and did a little shopping with our friends.

The next morning, we rose early and hopped on a plane to Bucharest, Romania.

It was a rather epic week, and we are so excited to see the sights of Romania next.

Thank you all for coming along on this journey with me. I hope you all had lovely weeks.

If you enjoyed this, you might like checking out some of the other “Week in Photos Tribe” from around the world. I so enjoy reading about people’s lives and seeing what is happening in other parts of the world in real-time each week. Dennett started this a couple of years ago, and it has really been fun to keep up with.

Dennett /Anne Bonfert /Eileen Vorbach /Lisa Bolin /Tracy Aston /David Wade Chambers/Kim Zuch /Barbara Radisavljevic /LensAfield /Barbara Dalton /Sasha Meyer /Susan Alison /Diana Lotti /Barbara Dalton /K. Barrett /June Nguyen /Juan O. Aguilera /Ellie Jacobson /Shruthi Sundaram/ Pene Hodge /Tracy Aston/ Sandra Barrett/Jillian Amatt — Artistic Voyages /Shell Parsons/Ivy Shepherd/Mia Verita/ Lynne Nardizzi/ Ken Martin

(I know some new folks have joined in, so if I’ve missed any of the “week in photos” tribe, please let me know!)

Erika Burkhalter is a yogi, neurophilosopher, cat-mom, photographer, and lover of travel and nature, spreading her love and amazement for Mother Earth’s glories, one photo, poem or story at a time. (MS Neuropsychology, MA Yoga Studies).

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Photos and story ©Erika Burkhalter. All rights reserved.