The Js are Silent

By Rory

We’ve had an eventful summer with a few short trips in places that are relatively close to Ljubljana. It’s also been a hot summer throughout Europe (and much of the rest of the world). But as the smart climate modellers forecast many years ago, Europe gets the award for being the fastest warming continent. That shouldn’t come as a surprise to any decision-makers, including the ones who are walking back their clean energy and climate resilience funding, and are now panicking, but I digress. Despite the constant 30 degree plus temps, we’re having a good summer.

Now that we finally have some time to spend on this blog, this will be the first of three blog posts all about our summer travels. And this post is all about the second largest city in Italy, Milan. As we are always looking for concerts to build trips around, this one was all built around the New York band Big Thief, definitely a band worth making a trip for. In a stroke of luck, the long weekend we spent there coincided with the trip by Krista’s colleague Dawn and her husband Kevin. It was great to hang out with them.

Duomo di Milano

If you’ve ever seen photos of Milan, you have likely seen the massive Duomo di Milano. There are a lot of superlatives appropriate for this. It is the largest cathedral in Italy and one of the largest in Europe. Construction began in 1386 and completed in 1965. It has 135 spires. A “gothic mountain of marble” according to the Milan travel guide. We opted for the self-guided tour up to the terraces, which is the best place to view the amazing architecture, the spires, the arches, the statue of Napoleon, etc. Also, don’t miss the Duomo museum, it is really well curated and was a perfect post cathedral/terrace complement. Some photos…

Other noteworthy sites around Milan

Milan is known as the fashion and design capital of Europe, and had we visited a few weeks earlier we would have been in the midst of the annual Design Week. We made the trek out to the Fondazione Prada mostly because we heard there is a cafe, Bar Luce, that was designed by Wes Anderson. It didn’t disappoint.

We also took a little excursion to the Puerto Nuova neighborhood, an area that used to be heavily industrial but was, in recent decades, redeveloped into a modern business and residential area. Among other things, it’s famous for these “vertical forest” apartment buildings.

And finally there was the Big Thief show, which took place at Circolo Magnolia, a laid back outdoor venue at the edge of town. It felt more like a giant backyard than a concert venue, a perfect setting for this down-to-earth band that played energetically and with a rawness that is much different than their recordings. Great show!

Stayed tuned for Parts 2 & 3 of our 3-part Summer 2026 blog series.