Vittorio Emanuelle Gallery, the living room of Milan

Certain things are impossible to disassociate. Thought in Milan – thought Duomo – thought of Vittorio Emanuelle Gallery. Impossible not to remember her!

Brief history of the Gallery

Before the construction of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuelle, Duomo square was called Piazza dei Polli – Chicken square. At the time a place full of street vendors, of wine among other things. In 1838 the engineer Carlo Caimi, said that the project, of the area covered with octagonal center would be a great way to connect the Duomo and the Piazza San Fedele, today all that's left is the name of the street, now it´s the Piazza della Scala. There you can admire an amazing statue of Leonardo Da Vinci, and quenching thirst in one of the numerous [tooltip tip=”Julia says: Yes you can drink and nothing happens, I'm living proof “]sources of drinkable[/tooltip] water

In 1859 after the Austrians retreated of Milan, to celebrate the new phase, by Royal Decree it was allowed a lottery, where anyone with a project for the surroundings of the Cathedral could sign up, but the funds required for the drawing was not collected. So in 1862 the City Council decided to open a contest for the design of the Gallery. In 1863 reached the finalists and the winning project, now known as postcard from Milan, was the proposal of Giuseppe Mengoni. At the beginning of the construction of the project was much criticized, and to win the heart of the Milanese it took a while, the reviews come out even in cartoons in the newspapers at the time. With the construction contract closed with the English factory Knight Eugene Frankfurt in 1864, in March 1865 the foundation stone was laid. Named as Vittorio Emanuelle was a tribute to the King.

Built in surprising 822 days, the architecture of the gallery was so innovative that even Napoleon visited the works twice! But only in 1877 the gallery was indeed ready with all the details and the beautiful glass ceiling. A tragedy ended up marking the final opening of the Gallery, on the eve the project engineer Giuseppe Mengoni died when he fell from the scaffolding of the work, some may say he killed himself because of the huge debts that the work caused. Anyway it gets to the imagination of each one. Finally in 25 th February 1878 the last part of the Gallery, the glass arch overlooking the Duomo, was discovered.

Nowadays the "living room of Milan" is full of fine stores (beyond the traditional cafes): [tooltip tip=”Julia says: We saw several shops around town “]Prada[/tooltip], Louis Vuitton, Swarovski and even a Ferrari store. As much as we can´t [tooltip tip=”Julia says: I don't even dare to do a price “]buy[/tooltip] (almost) nothing in these stores, it´s worth looking at the shop windows, I especially love to admire the [tooltip tip=”Julia says: art of Mount Windows “]window dressing[/tooltip] of each brand, especially in fancy places like that because that's where they really invest $$ in visual, It is very beautiful.

The floor is all worked with mosaics, including, in the central part of the gallery you can see the coats of arms representing the cities which were capitals of Italy one day and recognize the famous coat of arms of the city of Turin. How to recognize? Easy! There's always a large agglomeration of people around the coat of arms of the bull on the blue background. As good tourists that we are we didn't forget to turn with the heel of the right foot on top of the bull's genitals, they say that brings good luck, and increases the chances of you returning to Milan. This tradition is so large that the floor has a hole lined with metal for the tourists to turn on it. This hole must have been the result of years of turns, and I believe , that at some point they decided to protect the surroundings with the metal part. I don't know if it works much ... but it is ok the intent. I admit being so fascinated with the structure that I ended up not photographing a lot of ground ... one more reason for me to go back.

Even in the central part of the hall you can admire the beautiful mosaics almost on the roof, that represent the 4 continents (Europe, Asia, Africa and America). They are really high, one in each corner of the intersection of central gallery, so if you want to enjoy in the minutest detail, ownership briefly one of binoculars that are available in the Gallery. I found them a little uncomfortable to use but it was ok, even more for free hehe, for free everything is better and more beautiful hehehe.

The bust of the day – The terrace of Vittorio Emanuelle Gallery

Due to a purchase I made for the tour "Discover Ferrari & Pavarotti Land " I won tickets to the terrace of the Gallery. The entrance is down the street outside. You take an elevator that goes through a restaurant and arrives in a hall where your delivery the ticket and follow to climb some stairs and finally get to the terrace. So ... yeah ...

We didn't find GREAT ... If I had paid the entrance I would have been very upset! You can get a nice view of the square but you only see the top of the Duomo, honestly a big bust. Should have paid a few euros and have risen in the dome of the Duomo, It would have been more interesting, without a shadow of a doubt. It just wasn't all bad because in the hallway it has a good part of the history of the gallery and I was able to use to write this post hehehehe. In summary ... don't pay for it!

• Information taken from exposure on the terrace of Vittorio Emanuelle Gallery.