Milano, days 1 & 2

Today in Milano started very early for me, actually before sunrise or, as my daughter Anne likes to say the "butt-crack" of dawn. Out the door of the hotel at 6 for a walk. I headed toward the Duomo and found a place where I had a cornetto and espresso. That's breakfast in Italy. The morning was cool and clear and very few people had ventured out for work. The streets were like empty pedestrian walk-ways, lined by cobblestone and stone blocks. Entering the empty piazza before the grand Duomo, the piazza looked much larger than full of people. Rising from the rear of the piazza, the Duomo looked somewhat out of place due to it's enormous size. It looks even larger standing inside. The rays of the sun were just beginning to touch the higher spires as I walked around the Duomo and around the front again passing the first priest I have seen in Milano. I wished him a "Buon giorno" and kept on my way toward the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele as the sky got progressively more blue. The Galleria was esentially empty which gave me a better chance than the day before to study the beautiful mosaics covering the whole marble floor and the many shops lining the sides of the 4 branches which made up the Galleria. It was a truly beautiful morning as I made my way back to the hotel where I waited for Paolo to meet me for another day's excursion.