Friday, 9 June 2017: Duomo di Milano

[My trip in June was so packed with things to do that I did not get to blog regularly. Since returning to Charleston, it has been also a very busy summer. I will endeavor to complete my blogging on my trip.]

Friday was the last day of Sacra Liturgia Milano. We began with just a couple of presentations and a closing address by His Excellency Dominique Rey, Bishop of Frejus-Toulon in France. We then had some free time for lunch and walking to the Duomo again for the final Liturgy, Vespers in the Modern Ambrosian Rite.

The High Altar from about midway in the nave.

Looking across the Altar from the north transept to the south.

 

The Altar, Pulpits, and Organs.

 

One of the side aisles.

At the end of Vespers, we processed to the altar of Bl. Ildefonso Schuster where we chanted the Te Deum.

Now the 2017 Sacra Liturgia Conference was officially over.  You can see photos and videos taken during the conference at Photographs from Sacra Liturgia Milan.

Our conference members had received a free tour of the interior of the Duomo on Thursday afternoon, but some of us (OK, mainly me!) wanted to take the extended tour - up to the rooftop of the Duomo, also known as "the terraces".

At this first level, above the south transept, 

there are wire screens.

You can look upwards the store tracery

and the flying buttresses.

You can even get between the column continuing upward from 

its interior column and a balcony-type railing.

 

From nearer the west front of the Duomo looking back

through a number of flying buttresses. 

 There are 52 columns inside the Duomo,

and they each extend to the sky above the terraces.

Each one has a finial with a statue,

as well as other statues (behind bars) below.

 There are statues literally everywhere!

More flying buttresses with the scaffolding around the

central tower where restoration is taking place.

Such incredible detail so high above the Piazza!

This is as high as tourists can get - the center of the roof above the nave.

Notice the tracery following the spiral staircase

up each corner of the central tower.

Looking towards the west front.

 Me chatting with Fr. Alionidas Budrius from Lithuania.

His assistant took this photo.

Fr. Budrius and me with the central tower in the background.

Fr. Budrius, Dr. Mahrt, and me near the edge of the roof.

You can see the new and old stonework.

Looking down on the north side of the nave.

Various pieces of stonework waiting to be laid in place.

Part of the US contingent attending Sacra Liturgia Milano:

Matt Mueller, Jon Laird, Dr. William Mahrt, me, and Jenny Donelson.

Another photo taken at the lower terrace.

I'm not sure if the Duomo terraces were on all our bucket lists or not, but we all certainly enjoyed the hour or so we spent up there. We then went across the Piazza to the Galleria Restaurant for dinner afterwards. A bunch of Catholics, in Italy, on a Friday: the seafood dinner was fabulous. We all highly recommend the Ristorante Galleria.

So, for me, bookend bucket-list items in Milano:  opera at La Scala on the first night and the Duomo rooftop on the last day.  Saturday morning is my flight from the smaller airport in Milan to the London City Airport right in London.