September 22, 2019

September 22, 2019

We are up and out of the hotel early today. Months ago we awoke in the middle of the night to snag popular timed tickets to see Leonardo Da Vinci’s iconic painting of the Last Supper. I especially wanted to see it on this trip as this is the 500th anniversary of his death in 1519.

The painting is in the former dining hall of the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie. We are early so we first peak inside the church. The limited Last Supper entry is controlled by a number of sliding doors that open and close automatically slowly advancing each wave of visitors. The Last Supper graces one end of a rather large barren rectangular room. The painting is huge and fills the entire wall. We have a long fifteen minutes of observation. Unfortunately Da Vinci used an experimental fresco technique that failed. The painting deteriorated quickly and has been restored several times. Who knows how much of the original painting really exists.

The other end of the dining hall has another mural of the Crucifixion. In adjoining rooms we learn about the damage the convent suffered during WWII. The Last Supper was sandbagged to protect it, but the building took a direct hit destroying it. Little but the two end walls survived.

At a nearby Metro station, we picked up a day pass and took the subway to the Duomo, arriving in time for a Sunday Mass. It is in Italian. With my high school Latin and Altar boy training, I can make out the gist of most of the writing in the missal handout.

After Mass we buy tickets to tour the Cathedral. We start by climbing the tower to the roof. Wow! It is a forest of decorated marble flying buttresses. It is a cool blend of art and ancient engineering and stone masonry. We marvel at the statuary detail that was rarely seen by parishioners. We walk down one side and then up and over the central nave to the other. The second side seems to have newer marble than the first. While the Cathedral was spared during WWII, it didn’t escape unscathed. Industrial Milan was the most heavily bombed of Italian cities.

The return stairs ends in the interior. The Duomo is the fourth largest Christian church; it is cavernous with lots of massive columns. Like the exterior, it is richly decorated with sculpture. Every column near the top is ringed with statues. Like the mall next door, the floor is a beautiful mosaic.

We walked around admiring the perimeter chapels and crypts filled with exquisite statuary. The most interesting is St Bartholomew, the martyr who was skinned alive. While the basic structure of the Duomo is late Gothic, since it took hundreds of years to build, different styles are apparent in the decoration. We also notice support bracing across the columns. This is probably another result of the shaking the Duomo received from WWII bombing.

We accompanied my relatives while they shopped in the Galleria. We exited to the north into La Scala Square where we encountered preparations for a Fashion Week event. Security and Polizia are out in force. Unfortunately one of the events is occurring in Teatro alla Scala so it is not open for tours. La Scala is the most famous opera house in the world. In compensation we stop at nearby Verdi cafe for a drink and lunch to honor this most famous of Italian opera composers.

After lunch we shopped some more. Humorously one of the hottest trends is scuffed tennis shoes. Similar to jeans with knee holes, apparently buyers don't want to go through the tiring practice of active living needed to produce “worn” clothing. When I get home I am going to investigate selling my ‘tennies’ that were scuffed walking the fashionable streets of Milan.

For dinner, we took a trolley west to Porta Ticinese, an ancient gate of Milan. It is also the dock and entry point for the Naviglio Grande Canal that connects Milan with the Po River Valley. With the help of da Vinci and his invention of the modern Miter Gate, this Medieval canal allowed marble quarried in the Alps to be transported here for the Duomo. Today the canal district is a trendy art and dining area. We had our farewell dinner at a restaurant along the Canal. We toasted our Italy Adventures with Prosecco, the Italian version of Champagne.