Kingdom & Glory.

As promised, I am doing my very subjective Italian city comparison today. As I´ve only visited Milan and Florence, I try to prove that Milan isn´t such a dull place everyone say. Some basic info first (I´ve gotten this from the Italian Wikipedia, so the accuracy of the facts is upon my understanding. And my Italian isn´t very good.).

Milan: population approx. 1 300 000, biggest sights the cathedral (Duomo di Milano), theatre La Scala (Teatro alla Scala), Galeria Vittorio Emanuele II and the Castello Sforzesco. Milan is a financial and business centre and is also famous of its´ expos.

Florence: population approx. 365 000, biggest sights the cathedral (Santa Maria del Fiore), Ponte Vecchio, the Church of San Lorenzo and the art gallery Uffizi. This city is considered as the birthplce of Italian Reneissance and was long under the rule of the Medici family.

Ok, I´ve visited both cities during tourist season, but you couldn´t tell that so easily in Milan, as it is huge unlike Florence that has narrow streets and tourists visible everywhere. So, if you hate crowds, Milan is better, but if you are like me and love taking a good look at people, Florence and all the thousands of people are a better option. Sometimes the crowds can get annoying, but I´m still giving my vote for Florence on this one.

Days spent in Milan: 3 and the day we headed to the airport. Days spent in Florence: 4, including the day we arrived there early in the morning, excluding the day we left to Milan. During that time, the average temperature in Florence must have been 35 °C (in the shadow) in Florence with one really heavy rain. In Milan the temperature might have been around 30°C, but no rain. And the sun was shining in both cities, all the time. In Florence you could really feel the heat because of the streets and huge stone buildings and it was a bit pressing. Milan on the other hand is loosely build and the weather just felt nice. So Milan takes this one home.

People. Like said, Florence was full of tourists. There must have been a lot of them in Milan too, but you couldn´t see them so clearly. In general, people left you alone in the city in the north, they might have just looked you long. (I am blond and a girl, so you must understand why.) The only man that actually approached us (me and my friend travelling with me, I´m not schizophrenic) was a local punk, who wanted to know where we were from and he thought we were intimidated by him. We weren´t, which we told him and he just warned us on pocket thiefs and not walking around the railway station when it was dark. He was ok. In general the people were very polite, but not too much, if you get my drift.
In Florence people were looking at us, shouting things we didn´t want to hear and asking questions, really not minding their own business. Men, always, men. Eventually we were extremely fed up with these people. So, this one goes to Milan too. BUT. I must give an extra note to a very nice guy handing out leaflets around the Duomo in Florence. He was fine looking, very sweet and totally noticed we were eyeing him for like two hours. This is why Flornce gets a plus.

Moving around in Florence is very easy, as it isn´t very big, you can easily walk everywhere, like we did. The orientation is not too hard either, since you´ll usually end up near the Duomo, it is very centre. The streets are quite narrow (skooters are popular because of that), but wandering on the alleys is nice and you can find some cool buildings. Hop on-Hop off busses go round the town regularly.
In Milan, well, you can walk pretty much everywhere, but the distances are long. We did walk (saw the city in one day), but were exhausted. The metro system is apparently fine, but I can´t remember seeing any sightseeing busses. This is why this one is a win to Florence.

Finally, the sights. The Duomos get an individual comparison.

Here on the left is Santa Maria del Fiore, the Duomo of Florence. It was impossible to take a photo of it, so there isn´t a single picture where you can see the entire building. It is massive. And beautiful. It is full of decorations and quite colorful. A real piece of art in a way. I don´t know what the interior looks like as we never got there. All the lines were long, so it must have some really good inside. A tourist attraction, but a fine one.




And this one on the right is the Duomo of Milan. A grand looking white church, extremely detailed in its own way too. If you ask me, this looks more like a regular church. It´s beautiful, but it was under reconstruction (ristrutturazione) so you couldn´t see the entire facade. A pretty one still. This one we saw inside, the entrance didn´t cost a dime. And it was a beauty, but what else can you expect. The treasury had some fine pieces and the entrance fee was only 1 euro. To decide between these two is hard, so I have to call it a draw.

Other sights. Well, the Ponte Vecchio looked very nice on an afternoon/early evening sun, but it was crowded. I´m not very fond of those old
Reneissance buildings, but I loved walking around and between them. Never went to the Uffizi, so I can´t say anything of that. All in all, Florence as a city is a sight and you can take nice pictures and experience it as an entity.
Milan isn´t filled with sights and for example the La Scala was a minor disappointement. We did see the Last Supper, but from what I hear, we were lucky on that one as one should get tickets in advance and that kind of stuff. Everything in Milan seems to be big, huge actually. But you can´t call the city a sight as you can do with Florence. So, the sights win is Florence´s.

All in all, the cities are very different, so this comparison doesn´t quite work. But if you like culture and old stuff, Florence is your thing. Even the strange market selling replicashirts and fake handbags was in a way fun. Milan is your place if you a lot of money and you like to shop and aren´t that keen on culture. Don´t get me wrong, Milan has its share on culture too, but it isn´t that significant. So the result is: Milan 2 - Florence 3+. See, I couldn´t prove that Milan isn´t as bad as everyone thinks. Shame.

(I left the food out on purpose because that comparison would be horrible.)



You can try to convince on liking Milan more, please do. I´d love to read your thoughts on this one.

I like this new TV On The Radio album Dear Science really much. It might be even better than their previous one. I haven´t listened this with thought yet, but had it playing on the background while writing. It works. I can´t describe it, but it´s like Bloc Party ten times better. Enough slow and fast. I don´t regret spending 10 euros on this one. (I decided that from now on I buy psysical copies only if they are somehow special. Saving money and nature.)

Oh, Melissa Auf Der Maur is playing a gig in Finland. A Scandinavia special, as she won´t make a big tour. I´d love to see her. I have to see if I can get someone accompany me, because I wouldn´t want to go alone. After all, gigs are better with company. And Auf Der Maur is one of my favourites and this would be a real rarity.

I need to go to bake as I´m having a guest tomorrow and I can´t let her starve. That would be impolite. I have to admit, I´m a bit frightened what she might have gotten me for my birthday. I mean, I have gotten her presents that justify some sort of revenge. My folks agreed to buy me the Nano and I should get it personalized some time next week.

That is all from now. Comment, suggest what I should write about and I´ll see what I come up with. Until that. Take care.

IWFT