The Brandt Home during my impressionable and pre-adolescent 1970’s was an ABC-TV family. Schoolhouse Rock, SuperFriends, Happy Days, Mork & Mindy, Welcome Back Kotter and The Love Boat made up our broadcast banquet table.
This is not to deny occasionally tuning into other network programming. We watched CBS broadcast the Walter Payton Bears on Sundays, WTTW had Mr. Rogers Neighborhood and NBC aired the dewey and saccharine, “Little House on the Prairie,” starring Michael Landon as the rugged but fair minded family patriarch,”Pa Ingalls”. He Seemed to me at the time like a mash-up of Mike Brady and John Wayne wielding a post-hole digger.
Anyhow… to make a long story L-O-N-G-E-R, I remember within the family’s confines of “Little House” it being a major event any time that Pa hitched up the horses and wagoned into town. The family members effervesced at the thought of shopping at the General Store: candy, books, pots/pans, a Parisian hat, boots, beans, seed, feed or a new-fangled wire cutter. The unforgiving and sparse prairie existence obviously drove the Ingalls Clan to long for life’s luxuries.
Such is Anne’s and my current situation in Toscana’s Poggi. To we two temporary Fiorentini, Milano is a comparatively sprawling land of Oz akin to the Ingalls’ wide-eyed visions of the General Store. Milan glimmers with abundantly accessible niceties that we hill-bound Villa-dwellers regularly dream of: fresh towels changed daily, housekeeping and laundry service, unlimited electricity, functioning thermostats, turndown service with pillow cookies, spa/mani/pedi treatments, fashion models strolling the Vie and chattering Bughati’s and Ferrari’s prowling the streets.
So, with Ingalls-esque excitement… we packed our bags and hitched up our Wagon (the VolksWAGEN) to hit the Autostrada for a long weekend in the Great Lombardi City of the North: Milano.
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We broke the outbound trip into two parts with a lunch stop & stroll layover in Bologna. Here’s the Palazzo at the Piazza Maggiore. We’re smiling… this picture was obvi taken after lunch.
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The porticos of Bologna are charming and the town’s defining architectural feature. Their cover effectively keeps the rain, snow and sun off your back but it’s really hard to see what stores line their arched walkways.
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Plenty of charm and restrictive viewpoints, to be sure.
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San Petronio to Anne’s left and the Palazzo d’Accursio to Anne’s right. But I’m sure it’s the three story billboard that the city planners wanted to attract her thoughtful gaze.
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We arrived into Milano around dinnertime. We ate (Risotto Milanese, what else?) and then took a stroll to the Piazza del Duomo and adjacent Galleria Vittorio Emmanuelle to establish our directional bearings while also torching some of those ricey calories.
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Milano’s Duomo. This thing took 500 years to complete… can you imagine the debates that raged when Gothic style became passe? Nonetheless, this is nothing short of immaculate.
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It’s really cool that these Masterpieces are open and accessible to everyone – it’s like time-warping into a work of art. Anne and I took the lift up to the rooftop with our guide, Carlo who for 90 minutes explained some of the important symbolism, political and historical influences used in the Duomo and how it was designed and built.
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Saturdays in Milano are the city-folks’ day out, Sundays are the more subdued day (opposite of Firenze). Everything around town was pretty crowded and we were lucky to have been photo bombed by only two people.
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The Sforzesco Castello is massive and looks by 15th century standards anyhow, to be impenetrable. The drawbridges were lowered so we walked right in. It was a convenient shortcut on our path from the Hotel to the DaVinci’s Last Supper.
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DaVinci’s Last Supper. Aside from this piece of art always moving me, I just love two of the stories related to its existence. First, that a 1943 bomb that destroyed much of the rectory housing the masterpiece didn’t harm the wall on which “Cenacolo Vinciano” is painted. Second, that some contractor cut a doorway through Jesus’ feet. D’OH!!!
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We caught a glimpse of this sculpture in a secluded Piazza while walking from Leonardo’s Last Supper to the Brandt’s Second Milanese Supper. I Google-mapped it… yup… it’s the Italian Stock Exchange. Someone bought high and sold low. D’OH!!!
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The Duomo’s Museum has hundreds of artifacts related to its construction. It’s estimated that artisans and craftsman occupied an area around the construction site equivalent to 8x the Duomo’s footprint. Pictured above are common-themed ‘audition pieces’ submitted by three different sculptors wanting to earn a few Euro’s while contributing to the Duomo’s embellishments. I’m no art critic, but I’d guess the artist who completed the rightmost work figured the Adjudicating Archbishop to be an Ass-man.
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We’re seated at Teatro alla Scala awaiting the start of the concert. It’s the first venue that enforced strictly the FFP2 mask mandate.
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World famous violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter and her piano accompanist.
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Shopping bags stuffed with merchandise and provisions from the General Store (along Via Monte Napoleone).
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We walked through a couple of the 19th century Milanese oligarchical manses… I always wonder what the billionaires of the day would think about us regular folk traipsing through their homes and eyeballing their curated collections of arts and crafts.
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Valentine’s Day pic. Sweets and Sweetie. ❤️❤️
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The view of altar at Santa Maria presso San Satiro from the ‘cheap seats’
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The altar’s illusion revealed at Santa Maria presso San Satiro. Clever people – the church was built on a very small plot.I figured our family, friends and followers may be wondering by now, “Where’s the Vino post?” And so, here it is; we enjoyed these two bottiglie ordered at successive dinners. We plan to drive to the Veneto and Piedmont regions for tastings when time permits. Despite this laissez faire attitude, we hope you’re still willing to visit us upon our return!! 🇮🇹 😜 🍷 🍷 🍷 🍷
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DRAMATICRE-ENACTMENT. Despite running hurdles in high school track, this deceptively-high swagged chain parking barrier abruptly brought me cheek-to-cheek with Modena’s pavement. I landed hard enough to break loose parts of my wristwatch – but fortunately my teeth, joints and bones were merely loosened by my rapid deceleration. Ouch. Pass the Advil.
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Having laid over in Bologna on the way to Milano, we targeted Modena as our stopover for the return trip to Firenze. It looked like an interesting enough tier-2 city with at least two attractions worth visiting after a lunch. Here’s #1… the Ferrari Museum.MEH 😑
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Here’s #2. Among other quality producers in the famed vinegar capital of Modena, Giuseppe Giusti makes sweet and tasty Aceto Balsamico (Balsamic Vinegar) products like the two pictured above. Their website says the boutique is open until 6pm. The host has a watch that runs 20 minutes fast and DENIED us entry.SAD 😞
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Thanks for reading, friends… we’re having a great time and will post again soon. Ciao!! 🇮🇹 😘 😘
I want you both to know how much I have been enjoying your pictures and Blog. So informative and fun to watch and read. Glad you are having such a great time. Keep the Blog coming. Love to you both. Gail
The Brandt Blog 
February 18, 2022 at 10:50
LOVE following along on your adventure!!!
February 18, 2022 at 11:31
Thanks Kristin 😘😘. We still intend on returning to the ‘Ville… we’ll see you then. Ciao!!
February 18, 2022 at 20:59
I want you both to know how much I have been enjoying your pictures and Blog. So informative and fun to watch and read. Glad you are having such a great time. Keep the Blog coming. Love to you both. Gail
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February 19, 2022 at 09:30
Grazie, Gail! Your kind comments and encouragement will ensure there is at least one more chapter. 😊😘
February 21, 2022 at 08:44
I keep going back to Milano’s Duomo! So breathtaking!
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February 22, 2022 at 15:17
Yes – they have suspended above the altar what’s considered to be one of the nails from Christ’s crucifix.