Milano

Today was our early day…we left the villa at 7:20 to assure we would meet our guide at the Maria de la Grazie church for our 9:15 tour.  Thankfully we have our digital navigator and Allan to interpret. Clay had already scoped out parking via Google so we went straight to a garage that was a block from the church.  A stop across the street for a cappuccino began our tour…

Da Vinci’s Last Supper was the highlight of the morning and generated a lot of discussion among us.  Unlike the crucifixion painting on the opposite wall which was an actual fresco (painted on wet plaster), Da Vinci’s painting was dry painted because he wanted to think about each part of it before it was committed to the wall.  Our discussion focused on two topics:  1) Was the Last Supper a Passover Seder?  The bread in this painting is not unleavened as it would be during Passover.  2) The decision to use the local landscape rather than using descriptions from the Bible to paint a more realistic landscape.  See through the windows.  

The painting is focused on the moment just after Jesus declared that one of his disciples would betray him.  Each of them has a different reaction to the statement.

We continued our walking tour of Milan with Alice and a relatively small group of mostly Americans and saw shopping malls, shopping streets, a sculpture of a needle and thread dedicated to the textile industry, streetcars or maybe they were trolley cars, and the Sforza castle (built in the 15th century by Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan, on the remains of a 14th-century fortification and today housing mostly museums).

The Duomo (Italian cathedral) in Milan is beautiful.  We thought of La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona when we saw it.Alice, our guide, told us that as lovely as it is outside, the real beauty lies within. But, we didn’t tour the inside.  We walked by La Scala, but the outside is nondescript.  Unfortunately, we didn’t recognize the opera that was playing and the tickets were above our price limits.  After the tour, we walked to Bagutta for lunch, as recommended by Charlie’s Italian teacher in New Orleans.  The walls in the ristorante were covered with drawings and paintings.

After lunch we walked to the Pinocotecha Ambrosiana to see paintings by da Vinci and his compatriots as well as excerpts from da Vinci’s notebooks.  When we exited the museum, it was pouring  so we walked to our car in fits and starts, arriving sort of damp, but happy with our day in Milan.

Dinner was pizza at a little restaurant in Urio, Il filo d’ olio…Allan had a hot dog and anchovy pizza and was in heaven.  It was a long, but fun day!