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Milan and Cremona - Mississauga Festival Choir Europe Tour 2017

After a short bus ride, we arrived in Milan. From the side of the Teatro alla Scala we entered the The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II which glass roof was one of a kind, oldest shopping mall.
I always have had a soft spot for architecture and design. It was worth stopping by for these few pictures.



On the other side of the shopping mall lay a large square with a large Gothic cathedral. It took nearly six centuries to complete. It is the largest church in Italy and the third largest in the world.


Gothic cathedrals do not have much decorations inside besides occasional carvings and stained windows. The heavy, gray structure however seems to be towering over the parishioners and visitors showing the marvel of the structure and design.



One of the interesting details of the cathedral were the two sets of organ pipes on each side of the altar. Each organ pipe set has a painting on each side of it. It did not appear that the organs were at any time closed in by the paintings, as the paintings looked stationary, however one of the purpose might have been to direct the sound.



After a quick lunch in a quiet cafe outside of the main square, we continued to Cremona, a town famous from its history of violin making.  It was a home to some of the earliest and most renowned luthiers, such as Giuseppe Guarneri and Antonio StradivariWe had a chance to tour the Violin museum that also included some other antique instruments. The highlight of the museum was definitively the sound chamber where you could sit down and listen to a concerto in a perfectly acoustic place.










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