Shopping in Milan

The third stop on the 4 hour "Highlights of Milan" tour was at the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II.  It has to be the world's most beautiful shopping mall.  The galleria is an elegant arcade lined with cafes and high-end, designer shops.

People stroll and dine under the huge glass dome and the four branches that radiate from the center.

Our tour guide walked us through the area explaining a bit about its history along the way.

However, that wasn't the only time we visited this grand place. We kept coming back several times to soak up the elegant atmosphere.

Our tour guide did explain one interesting and amusing bit of history.  The floor of the mall contains four mosaics that represent the coat of arms of the four capitals of the historic kingdom of Italy, Rome, Florence, Turin and Milan.  It happens that the symbol of Turin is a bull and a generously endowed bull is depicted on the coat of arms.  Soon after the floor's installation, people began to think that the bull's rather large genitals would bring good luck and men began to spin around, counter-clockwise, three times with their heel on said genitals.  Well, as you can imagine, the mosaic tiles soon wore out and consequently, the bull has been savagely neutered, so to speak.  However as you can see from this photo, the superstition still persists.  People still spin on the vacant spot on the bull's anatomy.  Our guide suggested that if we tried it, we might wish for the bull to be restored to his original robust masculinity.

On our last evening in Milan, when we strolled through the galleria once again, a young pianist was performing under that magnificent glass dome.   It was a wonderful way to celebrate our last visit to this gorgeous place.