Using Asti has our base, we took a bus into the countryside to spend the day sampling Piemonte wine & food. The Ferraris vineyard is at Castagnole Monferrato & is part of the “Infernot” trail of old wine vaults which were dug into rock similar to “tufo” under large family houses. The Ferraris cellars were used for more than three centuries for the production of wine & are now a small museum. The wine tasting was held in the house above the cellars. Afterwards, we had lunch at The Miraja, in a beautiful 17th century manor house in Castagnole with fresco ceilings, now a family run restaurant serving Piedmontese cuisine.
On the way from Asti to Lake Como, we stopped at Milan. We took the Metro from the train station to Piazza del Duomo, watched street entertainers, tried Luini's Panzerotti (a simple fluffy pastry filled with oozy meat and cheese) which is near the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. We walked on the roof of Milan’s famous cathedral ( Duomo di Milano) to have a closeup view of its forest of pinnacles and spires, before visiting the church & museum. The Cathedral has the largest Stained-glass windows of any church worldwide, the largest pipe organ in Italy- built by Tamburini & Mascioni, the statue of "St Bartholomew Flayed" by Marco d'Agrate, a circular crypt by Pellegrini, Scurolo crypt with reliquary of St Charles Borromeo and beneath it is a 4th century Baptistery of San Giovanni alle fonte. In the left wing of the Royal Palace is the Duomo museum with many statues & other artwork including the Processional cross in red jasper, gold and gems, “God the Father” by Bertramino di Zutti, "Christ disputing with the Doctors in the Temple" by Tintoretto, "Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple" by Biffi, painting of "Judith & Holofernes" by Battista and statue by Vismara, "Yael & Sisere", by Cerano plus examples of stained glass windows.