When you’re on vacation and not following a normal routine, you tend to lose track of the days of the week. Our first priority today was to visit the La Scala museum and their special exhibit Maria Callas Onstage. We totally forgot that today is Sunday and the museum is closed. This was a major disappointment, but we decided instead to check out Milan’s largest cathedral, the Duomo.

As we walked in there was a service in progress, and it was a bit bizarre to see and hear people attending Mass while tourists with earbuds and selfie sticks wandered all around them. It was an unexpected treat, however, to hear the organ play as a soprano voice sang Holy, Holy, Holy. The cathedral is beautiful with its stained glass windows, sculpture, and sarcophagi. We bought tickets to visit the Terraces, allowing us to take an elevator up to the top of the cathedral and wander around among the spires and flying buttresses. It was spectacular. We then visited the Duomo museum. This museum contains everything related to the cathedral including statues, tapestries, and models in wood or terracotta.

In the evening we went back to La Scala where we had tickets for a concert. The program was the Requiem for Rossini. It’s a seldom heard work that was written in a collaboration of several composers for the first anniversary of Rossini’s death. Our seats were high up in the Gallerie (balcony) this time, and although it’s difficult to see everything from there, you can certainly hear it all. The chorus was excellent as was the orchestra, and the soloists were serviceable. In all, it was an enjoyable concert, and one last chance for us to enjoy being in this spectacular hall.

Tomorrow we say one final “arrivederci” to Italy and move on to the “and beyond” part of our journey. First stop – Zurich!