Day 2 - Milan

Duomo (Cathedral) in Milan

Today was a second nice day in Milan. It was a little cloudy but the temperature was in the upper-70s.  We slept late, until after nine, to recover from the jet lag and then we took the Metropolitana downtown to the Duomo. From there it was a short walk to the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, which is a combination library and museum. It houses some great Renaissance paintings by Bottecelli and Da Vinci, but now also has an exhibit of the original Da Vinci codex. The codex is a loose collection of Da Vinci’s papers and illustrated drawings of his inventions. It was a nice, old style museum taking you on a rambling walk through about 20 rooms on various floors. One nice thing is that this museum is off the beaten path and there were hardly any tourists here, just a couple of school groups of children.

Stained Glass (Christ in the storm)

From the museum, we walked back back to the piazza to tour the Duomo. When we were here several years ago, there was a mass in progress and we couldn’t see most of the cathedral. It is a beautiful Italian Gothic style cathedral with massive stone columns and stained glass windows. It took nearly 600 years to complete the cathedral and is the 5th largest church in the world and the largest in Italy. That last statement is a really technicality as St. Peter's is bigger but it is in Vatican City which is not part of Italy.

Italian Girl

After a quick lunch, we went to see The Last Supper, which is Da Vinci’s masterpiece showing Christ at the moment he announces that one of his disciples will betray him. The painting was done with a dry fresco technique and hence is very detailed but also very fragile compared to the wet fresco technique. They strictly control access to the room through two sealed air chambers and limit groups to 30 at a time to prevent further deterioration. We bought these tickets several months in advance as there are virtually no same day tickets. While waiting to get in to see The Last Supper, we listened to someone playing mostly English songs on the guitar in the piazza. After I asked (and tipped him), he played three Italian songs for me, two of which I knew very well. It was apparently so inspiring that an Italian girl strted posing to the music while her boyfriend (and I) took her picture.

La Scala

In the evening we went to La Scala to watch the ballet, Giselle. La Scala is one of the two or three most famous opera houses in the world but the ergonomic design of the seating is several centuries old (opened in 1778) so it very tight with obstructing poles here and there. Of course being in the cheap seats, relatively speaking, didn’t help. Even with the discomfort the ballet was magnificent. I counted a ballet corps of 24 ballerinas and at least a dozen men, not counting the main ballerinas. The synchronization of movements was fascinating and very beautiful to watch. Fortunately we had studied the story in advance so we were able to follow the plot pretty well. It was a late night as we got back to our hotel around midnight with an early start planned for the next day.