Now I have to say I don’t think there is any way you can do justice to the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan.
It is too big and too popular a place for an amateur like me to get a good picture.
It was built between 1865 and 1877 and so is a contemporary of our own Barton Arcade.
Both are shopping malls with lots of glass and iron tracery but there the comparison ends for the Galleria is huge and packed full of the leading names in retailing with many of them at the very posh end selling the sort of stuff that costs an arm and a leg.
There also loads of restaurants and so the place is pretty much one of the meeting places in Milan.
That said on any one day most of the
people wandering through are tourists, which of course was what we were.
Having done the Duomo it is but a short walk across Piazza del Duomo to the Galleria which has the added bonus that when you come out at the other end you are faced with La Scala.
I hadn’t been prepared for the sheer size of either the cathedral or the shopping mall and spent the hour it took us to get back home to Varese pondering on when would be the best time to do a return visit.
We had got there just before midday and the piazza and surrounding buildings were already full of people and I guess that is how it always is.
Location; Milan
Picture; Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, 2009 and Barton Arcade, 2010, from the collection of Andrew Simpson
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| Milan, 2009 |
It was built between 1865 and 1877 and so is a contemporary of our own Barton Arcade.
Both are shopping malls with lots of glass and iron tracery but there the comparison ends for the Galleria is huge and packed full of the leading names in retailing with many of them at the very posh end selling the sort of stuff that costs an arm and a leg.
There also loads of restaurants and so the place is pretty much one of the meeting places in Milan.
 |
| Manchester, 2007 |
Having done the Duomo it is but a short walk across Piazza del Duomo to the Galleria which has the added bonus that when you come out at the other end you are faced with La Scala.
I hadn’t been prepared for the sheer size of either the cathedral or the shopping mall and spent the hour it took us to get back home to Varese pondering on when would be the best time to do a return visit.
We had got there just before midday and the piazza and surrounding buildings were already full of people and I guess that is how it always is.
Location; Milan
Picture; Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, 2009 and Barton Arcade, 2010, from the collection of Andrew Simpson
It wasn't too bad at 9.30 am.
ReplyDeletethe view from the cathedral roof is stunning!