September 12, 2019
Our hotel, the Straf, is within steps of the Cathedral
Took the train from Interlaken to Milan and it only took 2 hours 58 minutes. If we took the slower train we would have had to add an additional 2 hours.
It was 62 degrees when we left Interlaken and it was 84 degrees when we arrived in Milan. We only had to change trains once in Spiez. There are stops in Visp, Brig, Domodossola and Stresa but we do not have to get off.
The tunnel from Spiez to Visp makes for quick travel as the train reaches speeds up to 120 miles per hour. Visp is where you change trains to go to Zermatt.
The SBB train police are traveling in our car. The Swiss do not want problems.
The train travels between forested hills from Visp to Brig. Off in the distance snow capped mountains quickly peek in and out as we speed by.
It is 30 minutes from Brig to Domodossola through the Sinplon Tunnel. The terrain changes to rockier mountains once out of the tunnel. The wagon rocks back and forth. It is not a smooth ride. It is not fun if you suffer from motion sickness.
In Domodossola, you can tell you are out of Switzerland. Houses mainly painted a cream color, pale yellow, light orange or terra cotta. Many 5 to 7 story apartment buildings along the train tracks. I do not see many flowers planted by homes and I do not see the window boxes with flowers as I do in Switzerland.
Lots of litter on the tracks when we stop in Domodossola. The platform outside is cracked and uneven. Paint is peeling off buildings. This is not a place I would feel safe walking alone. Heading to Stresa, I pointed out to Michael they have tall shrubs and small trees along the railroad tracks. I suppose it helps with noise from the trains. As I like to look out the window when I am on the train, I find this annoying. As I look around at the people sitting near us, they are all sleeping except for us. Guess it doesn’t matter what the scenery is outside.
Now, I found Stresa more interesting. Beautiful lake area! Many tall apartment complexes. Some of the homes high up the hillside were amazing. What a beautiful view they must have of the lake. We hug the lake for miles. I will have to check the name.
Terrain flattens out after Stresa. There are some rolling hills off in the distance.
Here is a little history about Milan to understand it better.
"Milan’s origin goes back to 400 B.C., when Gauls settled and defeated the Etruscans against Celts who were about to overrun the city.
In 222 B.C., the city was conquered by Romans and it was annexed to the Roman Empire, getting the name of Mediolanum. It became a permanent Latin colony in 89 B.C. after few attempts to rebellions. By 42 B.C., Rome had exerted its hold over Cisalpine Gaul (that means 'Gaul this side of the Alps') sufficiently to make the city officially part of its Italian territories. In his reorganization of Italy in 15 B.C., emperor Augustus made Milan the capital of the Transpadania region, including the towns of Como, Bergamo, Pavia and Lodi and extending as far west as Turin. Due to its strategic position (it was placed between the Italian peninsula and those areas beyond the Alps where Roman interests were widespread) the name changed into Roma Secunda. From 292 A.D. Mediolanum became the effective capital of the western emperor. It was a very important center for the consolidation of the new Christian religion. Some Milanese churches (like San Lorenzo, Sant'Ambrogio and Sant'Eustorgio) have early Christian origins.
After 313 A.D., the year of the Edict of Tolerance towards Christianity issued by Constantine the Great, many churches were built and the first bishop, St Ambrose, was appointed: Ambrogio was such an influential person that the church became the Ambrosian Church (December 7th is a holiday to honour Sant’Ambrogio, the Milan's patron). Although Milan became less important as the Roman Empire declined. The city suffered the invasion of Lombards who first sacked (539 A.D.) and then conquered it in 569 A.D. . The capital of the Roman–Barbaric kingdom of the Longobards (569-774 - from whom the region Lombardy takes its name) was instead Pavia. Milan's rebirth just began with Carolingian rule in the 8th century.
The bishops used the Lombard influence to built an alliance with the emperor Ottone of Saxony (who was the crowned king of Italy in the church of Sant’Ambrogio) and got even more powerful. The Church was given precedence over the landed nobility, whose power was consequently reduced and, allied with the 'cives' (city–dwelling merchants or tradesmen), the clergy became the effective rulers of Lombardy's increasingly wealthy cities from around the start of the new millennium. At the beginning of the year 1000, the archbishop of Milan became the most powerful person in Northern Italy. In 1117, Milan became a municipality after a series of political difficulties and it acquitted itself of the archbishop. Milan also expanded by declaring war on other cities of the area. During this period, the city was governed by democratic laws and it built the Palazzo della Ragione as a seat fo its political self–rule.
After that Frederick I of Swabia (named Frederick Barbarossa) tried many times to conquer the city, in 1167 the 'Comuni' (towns run by the people) banded together in the Societas Lombardiae (Lombard League) and in 1176 Barbarossa was defeated definitively during the famous Battle of Legnano (Battle Royale) which is also the subject of the eponymous opera by Giuseppe Verdi. Beginning in 1200, Milan’s importance increased intensively and finally became a "Seigneury" (feudalism). The city considerably changed mainly in its appearance; some examples were the extension of the city walls, the construction of new buildings and the development of new paved streets.
The Visconti and Sorza Families
The period of democratic government came to an end when power was sized by the old Milanese Visconti family who were to be 'lords' of Milan from 1277 to 1447; the commune system was over and Milan, like so many other northern Italian cities, was going the way of one-family rule. From 1300, the Visconti brought a period of glory and wealth to the city and, within the space of a generation, the surrounding cities all acknowledged their rule, Bergamo and Novara in 1332, Cremona in 1334, Como and Lodi in 1335, Piacenza in 1336 and Brescia in 1337. It was under their rule that began the construction of the Duomo in 1386 (that then became the symbol of the city) and of the Castle Porta Giovia (then destroyed and rebuilt by Francesco Sforza and still nowadays known as Sforza Castle.
When the last Visconti duke Filippo Maria died in 1447 there were three brief years of republican rule then, in 1450 Francesco Sforza, his son-in-law, assumed the Castle and the power of the Visconti family and Milan finally got peace after many years of war against Venice and Florence. The Sforza family's rule coincided with the Renaissance period in Italy and especially Francesco's rule was magnificent; he transformed the city into a powerful metropolis, building among other things the Castello Sforzesco and the Ospedale Maggiore (now Ca' Granda). It was during these years that the Castle and the Duomo were being built along with the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie. Under the Sforza duchy the city began its development. Ludovico il Moro (Ludovico Sforza) was the dominant figure; he proved a good ruler encouraging agricultural development and the silk industry, he called architects like Donato Bramante and Leonardo da Vinci to his court, making the city one of Italy's great centres of art and culture.
Spanish and Austrian Domination
In the early 16th century (the last years of Sforza rule) northern Italy was one of the territories contested by the Spanish and the French monarchies. Lombardy enjoyed a 14–year semblance of autonomy after France's King Francis I was defeated at Pavia in 1525. Francesco Sforza ruled under the tutelage of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (a Habsburg and King Charles I of Spain), but when Francesco died in 1535, Charles assumed direct power so began 170 years of Spanish domination which transformed the once-proud independent Duchy of Milan in the neglected capital of a province administered, guarded and taxed by foreigners. This is the humiliated Milan described in the Manzoni's novel "I promessi sposi". It was a time of no development and the city was also oppressed by the scourge of plague in 1630. Fortunately in the second half of the 17th century Milan's religious and cultural life was given fresh vigor thanks to the initiatives of Borromeo family, especially Carlo and Federico. Then, the great European wars of the early 18th century assured the Austrian domination of the city, which completely changed in all society fields (economic, public, cultural, artistic, administrative, scientific) thanks to the improvement given by the Habsburg dynasty. The Accademia di Brera was founded in this period; the theater La Scala (where Giuseppe Verdi had his debut) was built in 1778, together with other neoclassical buildings and the Arco della Pace (1807).
The Napoleonic Era
It was thanks to this climate of enlightenment that Napoleon was received so enthusiastically by the Milanese when he marched into the city in May 1796, many optimists at that time saw him as the symbol of the democratic reform spirit. After Napoleon’s fall in 1814, the Congress of Vienna restored Lombardy to Austria, but Austrians were no longer enlightened reformers and the Milanese remained largely hostile to Austrian rule; hostility that found a musical outlet in some of Verdi's early operas and that finally exploded in the heroic Cinque Giornate of 1848 (five days of street fighting). However, owing to the military incompetence of Carlo Emanuele of Piedmont, the uprising failed and the Austrian forces re-entered the city which was placed under their commander-in-chief Count Joseph Radetzky's control.
The Kingdom of Italy
It was just in 1859 that the Austrians were run out of the city and Milan was annexed to the Kingdom of Piedmont which became the Kingdom of Italy two years later. The liberation passed through the pressure of combined military intervention by the French and the Piedmontese and the decisive action of Risorgimento hero Giuseppe Garibaldi and his guerrilla troops. Since the seat of government had to be Rome, from this time on, Milan was chosen as the economical and cultural capital of Italy. To celebrate its new free status a great number of grandiose building projects were undertaken, for example the construction of the great Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, the San Vittore prison, the Cimitero Monumentale and the San Gottardo tunnel.
Fascism and Post -War Period
The fascist party was founded in Milan in 1919 encouraged by the tumultuous climate created by numerous strikes supporting socialism. The population did not try to resist the dictatorship, except for some industrial workers and intellectuals. It was in this period that pompous works and examples of innovative architecture were built; the Central Station and the Triennale are two of them.
During the war, Milan was destroyed. At the end of World War II, Lombardy was instrumental in the boom that transformed Italy from a relatively backward, agricultural country to an industrial world leader. The city became a major financial center and the region's new–found wealth attracted a myriad of workers from the south of Italy in a wave of immigration. It is nowadays the major center for commerce, finance, publishing and recently media, design and fashion.
Michael and I took a cooking class with Francesca. It was a delightful four hour dining experience. We went to her apartment, which has a view of the cathedral, to cook homemade pasta with a homemade tomato sauce.
She uses semolina flour instead all purpose.
saltimbocco (pounded chicken breast with prosciutto and sage.
The dog stayed in her bed until she heard the lid from the mascarpone cheese come off. The dog was allowed to lick the container clean.
For dessert we made a summer berry tiramisu using berries instead of coffee.
Francesca will send me the recipes and I will share them with you.