Well… final day in Milan today… in hindsight may have cut it a day shorter than we should have…. but of course would had take a day off somewhere else. We had our customary Italian breakfast… and set off (on foot) to join a ‘walking tour’ which included viewing Da Vinci’s ‘The Last Supper’.
This is the street our apartment is on…
We arrived at our meeting point a little early to the scene of one those American’s that give Americans a bad name carrying on that she thought the tour company must have ‘ripped her off’ because the tour guide hadn’t turned up exactly at the appointed time… even though there were twenty other people there waiting.
The tour guide was very informative… and took us too some of the ‘less visited’ places in the centre of Milan. These included 3 quite unique churches … The first was built in a very small space … and the apse at the end being made to look deep by an optical illusion … It is 90cm deep in fact.
We went to a couple of other unique churches … all with particular artistic influences prior to going to the Stock Exchange building which has a unique sculpture that was donated as long it was never moved from the site. It was placed there in 2008 at the beginning of the GFC… which is far from over for Italy… youth unemployment running at a staggering 45%
We then visited the Santa Maria delle Grazia monastery to view ‘The Last Supper’. This painting takes up a wall in the monastery and altough the rest of the monastery was destroyed in British bombing raids this wall remained standing. The painting itself has been deterioration over many years but the local authorities have spent about 20 years restoring it as best as they can. No photos are allowed… and you get a strict 15 minutes in the room.
Following lunch we jumped on the sightseeing bus … and toured the newer parts of the city. Milan is hosting Expo next year… so there is much new redevelopment underway… including some architecturally designed new office towers. This has also meant that some of the attractions have been shrouded in scaffolding while they get cleaned.
Our last stop for the day was the Brera Art Gallery which has a great collection of 14th-17th century paintings… and a stunning building housing them.
On the way back to the apartment we stopped at our local Bio-Con (organic supermarket and biught some pasta and sauce to cook up a yummy dinner to round out the time here.
One of the other observations I would make about Milan is the attention to detail in the shop windows is amazing… whether its clothing, handbags or homewares / design shops … they are beautifully set out… Anyway thats it for Milan… up early tomorrow for another train…
Until tomorrow
Rob
Rob's "Beats Working" Blog 