Ok, I need some sleep.
We arrived into Milano Centrale station and it was pure chaos! The place was huge, people everywhere, no one to help you and when I went to line up to buy our tickets for Venice the next day I was 787 and the number display read 538! On top of that most wickets had no one serving and I waited over an hour in a frustrated line!
We were also foolish enough to come into the country with no Euros thinking that there would be lots of ATMs in a train station...NOT!! So we trudged down to the Metro thinking that the ticket machines would take credit or debit cards...NOT! I tried all of our cards with no luck but when we checked our bank account they did take the money out even though the machine said the transaction failed. So now we have to go back up two or three flights of stairs and escalators to buy money at the Cambio.
Not too pleased...
Well,with money in our pockets we went back to the machines, bought our Metro tickets and tried to get through the stalls. I got in, Don's didn't work so some lady let him through on hers. You can just imagine how tired and frustrated we were by now and we hadn't gotten out of the train station and it was 2 hours later. Welcome to Italy!!
If these machines had ears they would be burning!
Our plan was to stop over in Milan for one night to see a little of the city and especially The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci. I had booked tickets to see this months ago as the tickets were limited and the day before I got an email to say that the tour was cancelled! So I had to scramble to get last minute tickets which I did after a posting on Trip Advisor.
Well we know traveling is sometimes frustrating and this day was a good example but we moved on, got off at the right stop and found our accommodations. We had a studio near the Duomo which is the center of the city. This was the sight that greeted us as we came up from the Metro....
It is called the Duomo de Milano, the fifth largest Gothic cathedral in the world which took over 600 years to build beginning in the 1300s. It is so huge and beautiful that it takes your breath away.
After we had a rest we went out to explore the city a little more, we went inside the cathedral and it was just as massive inside. It is the biggest church we have ever visited, even bigger than Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.
Here is an example of the size of the columns.
Don was wondering about confession???
A view across the Cathedral...
The stain glass windows at the back of the church...
Some of the sculptures...
The square was filled with people...
Sitting on the steps of the Catheral.
Milan is the second largest city in Italy and is the financial, industrial and commercial centre of the country as well as being a fashion center.
The windows are full of high fashion.
Here is a picture of the Galleria shopping area which is owned by the city and each storefront window costs 40,000 Euros per month to rent. Guess you would have to sell a lot of high priced merchandise to cover that rent.
On one of the tiles there is Taurus, the bull and to rub your foot on the bull's balls is said to bring you good luck!
A million dollar sculpture called The Needle, a nod to the fashion industry of Milan.
A lot of smartly dressed people, many of the men look like fashion models...
The women wear high heels and ride their bikes everywhere...
Lots of street art including a submarine coming up through the street.
Having a chat near the fountain.
Lots of people out enjoying the evening.
The next morning we were up early to catch our tour...
Stopped at McDonald's for coffee, you know you are in Italy when McDs has an espresso machine.
We stopped in the Teatro de Scala, the famous opera house...
We also stopped in the Sfroza Castle which was built in the 15th century by the Duke of Milan. It is built in the shape of a rectangular fortress with the walls still intact. It contains a number of museums which we didn't have time to visit.
One of the gates to the Fortress.
The interior courtyard with the Don in the middle of the crowd.
Our final stop was at the ancient Dominican monastery, Santa Maria delle Grazie the site of Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper.
Da Vinci started the painting in 1490 and chose to represent the emotions of the Disciples immediately preceding the moment of the pronouncement..." One of you will betray me." By doing that he focused on their faces, their postures and the movement of their hands which was one of the most innovative techniques of that time. He also did not work in the fresco style but the " dry method" which allowed him longer times to work on the subjects. This technique however did not hold up well and the painting has deteriorated over the years despite many restorations.
To see this masterpiece 30 people at a time are allowed into a locked room for 15 minutes and it is very difficult to get tickets without a long notice...
In this close up you can see the painting's deterioration.
The painting measures 180 inches by 350 inches and to me was somewhat underwhelming. It was painted on the wall of the dining room and took parts of three years to paint.
Though it was interesting to see and I did learn some things about the painting that I did not know before so that is always good. It was a reason to stop in Milan and even with all the frustrations we were both glad that we came for the day.
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