It was after leaving the Duomo that the two bachelors had their first quarrel. This is how it came about:—The older bachelor, who is impressionable and of a poetical and non-technical turn of mind, enjoys an undisturbed first sight of a magnificent building, without first of all inquiring into its structural and architectural details; and if there is one thing more than another which annoys him, it is to have the “dry bones” of workmanship dinned into his ears and thrust before his mental vision when the complete building should rather impress on him all that it has to say of great achievement and power.
Now the younger bachelor is technical and fond of dates, so seized the opportunity of showing off his knowledge of history and archæology at the very moment when his friend was first gazing at the religious splendour of the interior of the cathedral. This made No. 2 insist on a judicial separation, at any rate for the first hour, so the greater part of the building was explored in “single blessedness.” The quarrel, postponed, of course, until we had left the Duomo, was happily of short duration, and the two bachelors compared notes, and came to the conclusion that, after all, more permanent unity is created by contradictory temperaments. Whether this would apply in the case of man and wife they unfortunately could offer no opinion founded on experience, so they wended their way through some very narrow, uninteresting streets to the church of St. Ambrose, at the west of the city.
St. Ambrogio, founded in the fourth century, is full of ancient epitaphs and early Christian antiquities, notwithstanding that it was very much repaired in the seventeenth century. The walls of the “atrium,” or open court, in front of it, contain fragments of frescoes, ancient inscriptions, etc., which, backed up by the Romanesque red brick church (dating from the ninth century), form one of the most picturesque scenes in North Italy.
The interior of St. Ambrogio is, if possible, more interesting than the exterior; it is of grey stone, with arches of red brick, a quaint effect of colour. There are no transepts, and the building terminates in an apse.
It would take pages to describe all that is remarkable in the interior of St. Ambrogio, so we shall only mention some of the interesting features. On first entering the nave we noticed two pillars, on one of which is a brazen serpent, said to be the brazen serpent of Exodus. The vaulting of the apse is very ancient, and is covered with mosaic work as fine as anything in St. Mark’s, Venice. Below we noticed the old chair of St. Ambrose. The high altar is interesting, as being the place where some of the German emperors received the iron crown of Lombardy; a baldachino or ciborium covers it.
On the front of the high altar (itself a blaze of glory) are depicted scenes from the life of Christ, while on the back are represented incidents in the life of St. Ambrose, the former in plates of gold and the latter silver-gilt.
St. Ambrogio contains several frescoes. The finest are “Legend of St. George,” by Bernardino; and “Ecce Homo,” by Luini. In it also are the shrines of Saints Gervasius and Protasius—very popular saints in Italy.
On leaving St. Ambrogio we wished to get straight back to our hotel; but we unfortunately lost our way, and were obliged to ask an Italian gentleman to direct us. He not only put us on the right road, but actually went out of his way to ensure our not losing ourselves again. This is characteristic of the North Italians. They are really polite, and, according to the elder bachelor, the most gentlemanly people he has visited.
After table d’hôte we strolled out of the hotel, and walked through the magnificent Galleria Vittorio Emmanuel (containing some of the best shops in Milan) into the Piazza del Duomo. It was a beautiful moonlight night, and the cathedral looked simply glorious—its dazzling whiteness almost frightening us as it suddenly burst on our view. After due deliberation No. 2 irreverently said that the appearance was similar to that of a colossal wedding-cake, with its sugary-looking ornamentations under a strong light. The Duomo, though not a very pure example of Gothic, possibly over-ornamented, and its detail not always in the best taste, is certainly one of the most extraordinary examples of man’s industry, perseverance, and wealth to be found in the whole realm of art.
It was about 9 o’clock p.m. that the first scene was enacted of what might have completely wrecked our holiday, viz., the longing of the younger bachelor to smoke one of the long cigars, with straws in them at either end, which foreigners, especially Italians, seem so to enjoy. No. 2 (the older) bachelor being the better linguist, went into a tobacco shop and ordered one of these cigars. It was in vain that the shopman declared they were never bought by English; it was of no use his repeating that they were so inferior—No, No. 1 had set his heart on possessing one of them, and have one he would.