St Andrews

St. Andrews, the golf course, is the most recognized golf course on the planet.  It is the home to The Royal and Ancient Golf Club, the guys who wrote the rules of golf. After all, this is "The Home of Golf " right here on the beautiful east coast of Scotland. While the golf course was not the only reason we came for a visit, it would have been well worth the trip all by itself! This place is fantastic! To see the Claret Jug, walk the Old Course, stand on the Swilken Bridge and to think about all of those fantastic dramas played out on the hallowed ground of the Old Course is truly great fun.  The course has hosted golf since the 15th century and has seen continuous play through all those years, except for a short period from 1457 when King James II of Scotland banned golf because the young men were playing way to much golf and not practicing their archery. That seems to be a problem for many golfers even today… The Course has hosted a record 29 British Open Championships and today hosts the Open on a five year rotation. It is a beautiful place on a beautiful coastline. If you play golf or if you just enjoy watching golf on the television or if you just like beautiful places you just have to come and visit.

The Clubhouse and the sea...

Just had to take this picture!

A famous bridge ....

St. Andrews, the town in Fife Scotland, is more than just home to a famous golf course and we really did see much more than just the golf course during our visit. We started with a stroll around the wonderful campus of the University of St. Andrews. The University was founded around 1410 when Avignon Antipope Benedict XII issued a papal bull to some Augustinian clergy. The school boasts an impressive list of alumni ranging from King James II of Scotland to Protestant Reformation leader and founder of the Church of Scotland, John Knox (1531) to modern day Royals, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge (2005) and Catherine (Kate), Duchess of Cambridge (2005).

St Salvator's Chapel

View across St Salvator's Quad

This youg piper welcomed us to University of St Andrews campus in fine style. As you can see he was putting quite an effort into his rendition.

A short walk down the hill from the University is the St. Andrews Castle, or at least what remains of the Castle. The first castle was built here on a rocky perch between 1180 and 1202 and was home to the region's powerful Bishops. The Archbishops of St. Andrews claimed this as their palace.

From there the castle saw much conflict and changing of hands. During the wars for Scottish Independence the castle exchanged from Scottish to British control and back again. Notably it was held by Bishop William Lamberton Guardian of Scotland and supporter of King Robert the Bruce.

The castle also played a significant role during the Reformation. John Knox recorded the castle and its bottle dungeon as a place where many protestants were tortured and executed. When prominent Protestant preacher George Wishart was imprisoned and then burned at the stake at the Castle the protestants responded by overtaking the castle and executing the Cardinal. Following this, protestants who took refuge in the castle formed the first congregation in Scotland. A long siege followed when mines and countermines were dug through the rocks to both topple and defend the castle. The mines are still here today and we crawled down into them to take a look; a chance to touch history.

The main entrance to the Castle

Views of the North Sea from the Castle

As you can see here the Castle stands today only as a ruin but enough remains to define its past. The vantage point and views of the coastline and out to the North Sea are really good.

Just a little more walking along the seacoast brought us to St. Andrews Cathedral. Construction of the cathedral began in 1158 and continued for over a century. The Cathedral was the centre for the Medieval Catholic Church in Scotland and the seat of the Bishops and Archbishops of St. Andrews. It was destroyed by fire and rebuilt a few times. The advent of the Scottish reformation spelled the end for the Cathedral. In 1559 the building was stripped of its alters and images and as Catholicism was declared illegal, it was abandoned and left to fall into ruin. What remains is still impressive and today it is carefully maintained by Historic Scotland.

Milan

We escaped to Milan for a long weekend and it was great! Milan is a big city, the second largest in Italy, and generally recognized as the fashion capital of the world.  Fashion momentarily aside, the history of the city is long and eventful. First settled in 400 BC and conquered by the Romans in 222 BC, Milan became the capital of the Western Roman Empire in 286 BC. In 1796 Napoleon invaded and conquered the region establishing Milan as the capital of Cisalpine Republic and later he created the country of Italy and declared Milan the capital. Napoleon was crowned as the self proclaimed King of Italy in the Duomo Cathedral in Milan.  He dubbed himself Emperor of the French and King of Italy. In more recent history Milan was heavily damaged by allied bombings during World War II.  As the war was coming to an end the resistance took control of the city and executed a fleeing Benito Mussolini and his mistress hanging their corpses in the Piazzale Loreto. 

All of that said, we came to this great old city to spend some time with the friendly and outgoing people of Milan, to see the sights, to visit a museum or two, to enjoy fine Italian food, and of course outstanding Italian wine. And, oh yes, to do just a little shopping. 

                 

One of the most famous sights identifying the city of Milan is it's massive cathedral. The Milan Cathedral, Duomo di Milano, is built in gothic style and  took over six centuries to construct, no kidding. Construction on the site of an earlier church began in 1386. The last details were completed and the last gate was inaugurated in January of 1965. However, a full time contingent of about 150 artisans continue working today to complete unfinished carvings, replace weather warn statues and replace damaged structural marble, causing some to say that construction has never really been finished. This is the largest Cathedral in Italy (remember that the Vatican City is its own country) and the fifth largest christian church in the world. The Cathedral is incredibly adorned with statues and spires with one golden figure at the very top, the Madonnina, depicting the Virgin Mary. In all there are 3400 statues, 135 gargoyles and 700 figures decorating this grand Cathedral. It is simply amazing...

Madonnina

The Opera house of Milan with one of the  yellow 1500 ATM Trams, an iconic symbol of Milan, passing by.

And then there was shopping! Milan is also home to one of the oldest shopping malls in the world! The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, named after the first king of the Kingdom of Italy, is an impressive four story double arcade sporting expansive glass domed roofs. It was built from 1865 to 1877 running a good bit late and over budget.

In the center is a large octagon space with wonderful mosaic scenes at the top of each of four large designer shops illustrating the four corners of the world. The floor is also a beautiful mosaic and includes the coat of arms of Turin, Florence, and Rome, making up the Kingdom of Italy plus one for the city of Milan. One of these, the one for Turin includes a large Bull. Tourists dig their heals in and spin on the bull at a strategic location to bring good luck. Not so much good luck for the bull.

The Galleria connects the Piazza Duomo to the Teatro Alla Scala, which means you can go in  from the location of the Opera on one side and can come out the other side at the Duomo Cathedral. There are a number of familiar big name designer shops inside the Galleria including Versace, Armani, Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Prada. There is even a Mercedes-Benz spot here! Shopping at The Galleria is not for the faint hearted, however, as the prices are quite jaw-dropping at times. We actually did a bit of window shopping here on a couple of occasions and we even bought a few things, although definitely not of the "jaw-dropping" variety. We also had a couple of enjoyable long lunches at the cafes as we watched the colorful people go by.

Coat of Arms for Milan:
the Cross of St George!

The Bull of Good Luck!
You can see the hole where tourists dig in their heal
 to spin around three times...

Beyond the Galleria the streets are full of … what else but more shops! We walked about 6 miles all around and through the exclusive shopping district of Milan in an attempt to look in on all of the designer shops. Every big name designer on the planet seems to have a shop here, from Andrea Ghelli to Zanotti and everything in between. We did a whole bunch of looking….and just a little buying.

We went for a long walk through the city and came upon the beautiful Church of Santa Maria Del Carmine, built in 1446. Here there is a most unique statue on display in the courtyard and a rather unique cafe in front of the church as well. The Sculpture titled Breast in Half is the work of Igor Mitoraj. The restaurant is appropriately called God Save the Food. What a nice scene.

From our hotel we walked to the Sforza Castle, known as the Castle of Milan. Construction of the castle began in 1358 commissioned by the Duke of Milan and continued over several generations with the castle growing larger and more impressive with time. The castle got a major rebuild in 1891 and today is the well maintained home for a number of fine museums.

Among the treasures on display is the last work of Michelangelo. This unfinished marble sculpture is the Rondanini Pieta. Michelangelo worked on this from the 1550's until the final days of his life in 1564. The sculpture captures the Virgin Mary mourning Jesus. Our guide pointed out to us that when viewing the sculpture you can get the impression that Jesus is actually holding up Mary comforting her rather than Mary cradling Jesus. It is believed that this was the intention of the artist. The statue certainly is intriguing.

After visiting a few of the museums within the castle we walked through the series of courtyards and exited into the largest park in Milan, Parco Sempione. The park was established in 1888 and fills the space between the Castello Sforza and the Arch of Peace. On our visit there was a festival in progress and we found lots of individuals and families enjoying good weather and the open spaces.

The next day we continued our explore by checking out the navigational canals of Milan, the Navigli. We were a little surprised that Milan actually has canals. Who knew? There were once five of them each with a unique name. We had a nice walk along the footpaths and across little bridges that cross the canals checking out the little cafe's and shops.





Continuing on just beyond the canals we found the Porta Ticinese. This is one of the ancient gates of the city. The gate faced southwest and was first built in the 16th century as a part to the Spanish Walls. The original structure was demolished in the early 1800's and replaced by what stands here today where it holds its place as one of Milan's landmarks.

We found Milan to be exactly what we hoped it would be. A large and energetic, yet welcoming city with it's own unique character. The mix of rich history and vibrant commerce especially around the fashion industry underscored with all things Italian made this a great holiday for us. The people of Milan made sure that we left with great memories. We just relaxed and took it all in, really good!…Chao!