Bonus - Milano!

On our last night in Florence, the last night of the trip, at the end of dinner and the celebrations for Mrs. Marshall's big birthday, my cell phone rang - I saw that it was Shenaz.  When I answered, she couldn't hear me - the kids were quite subdued, but the moms were pretty loud - Shenaz said "It sounds like you are having a good time! Now go somewhere quiet."  So I went outside and she let me know that strike action had resulted in the cancellation of our flight the next morning.  At this time, it was early afternoon for her, and for me it was getting late.  Everyone was packed for a transfer to the airport the next morning.  We worked together to figure out alternatives for our flight the next day, but at around 11:30 PM Europe time she confirmed that there was no way we were flying on the 27th, but that we should be able to fly out of Milan on the 28th.  I stayed up until about 1:30 AM looking at hotel options in Milan and finally gave up and went to bed.  Milan was hosting Barcelona's football team - even hotels with 500 rooms were completely full!

 When we left Florence the next day, all we knew is that we were heading for Milan, possibly to sit in the airport overnight and wait for our flights.  But Shenaz stayed up really late and came through for us, finding a hotel with rooms for us in Novara - a small city near Milan.  With that knowledge, I got Rens to drive us to the centre of Milan first to visit the huge cathedral (fourth largest in Europe) and the city square before heading to working class Novara to eat, sleep, and get up at 3:30 AM to head to the airport. 

Flowers were in bloom and trees had leaves in Milan.  Note the spires of the cathedral in the distance

This is called flamboyant (flame-like) gothic - the roof is actually covered with spires, each topped by a statue

The tour guide

Some are more interested in the pigeons!

In the centre of the picture there is a small cross with a small red light shining on it.  This is where a nail from the true cross is kept - the most important relic in this cathedral

The somewhat macabre statue of St. Bartholomew, who was skinned alive by the Romans...

... same statue from the front - done by a student of DaVinci's - who was obviously breaking the church rules about human dissection to have such an accurate portrayal of a man with no skin

One of the three saints whose bodies are on display in the cathedral

Note the shine where people have rubbed the statue over the years

On the way to the Piazza Castello for Rens final pickup and transfer to hotel of the trip.