05-15 Touring Milan

Leonardo da Vinci painted The Last Supper at the request of a friend in 1497. He tried a new medium, it failed, and it didn't last very long. They've been restoring it ever since.

Since they only allow 25 people in every 15 minutes to see it for 15 minutes each, you need to either make a reservation or join a tour to see it. We joined a bus/walking tour.

They took us to the most famous opera house in the world, La Scala, where we got to see the waiting area, the stage where they were doing rehearsals, and the museum in there. Karen and I have been to a few plays in a few houses and this theatre was by far the grandest. On the sides they had 7 layers of box seats. The orchestra pit was huge which put the audience even further away from the action - not a good thing for me. Unfortunately we were only able take pictures in certain areas.

We walked across the street, through the Galleria that we were in yesterday, and then we were given 15 minutes to go view the Duomo. This is the 4th largest church in the world and they give us 15 minutes? I'll give them some slack on this because this tour is just an overview of the city and she was saying you can come back on your own to explore it more fully later.

We boarded the bus again and got off at Sforza Castle and we walked through it and were told some very interesting things, none of which I remember.

Back on the bus and we headed for the church that has the Last Supper in its Refectory (a Refectory is a place where the Last Supper is displayed). She split our group of 50 into two groups and we ended up in the first group. We entered the yellow building to the left of the church.

You enter a room to wait, then move around the corner to a room where the glass doors are closed behind you. Then in a few minutes you move into a 2nd room of the same type. Now you are this close to actually going into the Refectory where the painting is.

The doors open and you are in this room that is 35 feet across from you and 100 feet left to right. On the right is the Last Supper and the other end is the Crucifixion by Donato Montorfano. We have earpieces in and our guide explains the details of the painting. With only 25 people in here there is plenty of room to move around and see from afar and to see up close while she talks in our ears. (Here is an Internet picture)

A guard rail keeps us about 15 feet away from the painting. I noticed that a door had been cut into the wall in the center of the painting with the top of the door frame going right through the table that everyone is sitting at. Eventually the door was sealed back up.

During World War II the Refectory took a direct hit from a bomb but the wall had been covered with wood to protect it and ended up being OK.

The painting, although restored in the last 10 years, looks faded. You can still see the details that are pointed out in books but it doesn't look brilliant and beautiful.

We all leave through another automatic door and as our door closes the next lot of 25 viewers are allowed in.

The Tour Office was a block from the Sforza Castle so we walked over after we got off the tour and went to their museum. We mainly wanted to see the large collection of musical instruments they had. They had quite a variety all right and you could see the evolution of the guitar and the piano from the older items.

Lunch from a local vendor in front of the Castle. The line was full of locals and long but we got our food fairly fast and I was certain it would be good.

We walked all the way around this huge park that was behind the Castle. We tried to get into a tall tower with a view but it was closed. We ended up taking a different subway train to a street with shops near our hotel and we shopped, then ate dinner, then made our way to our hotel to get ready to move to our next city and country, Zermatt, Switzerland.