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Published: December 5th 2005
il Cenacolo di Milano (c.1497)
The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci, chiesa di Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milano.Having several hours to spend before the departure time at 1:20 am, I was in no hurry to reach Tiburtina station back in Rome. I love night train, as I could sleep anywhere, maybe this is the reason why the Hardy boys decided not to join me for Milan trip. After Edinburgh and Venice, they said they have had enough with anything night transporter. So, with a set of tickets €29.37 for Roma-Milano and €27.37 for Milano-Roma, I am ready to embrace my new adventure in Milan.
I tried to walk as slow as possible to the designated train platform, since I knew that I had more than two hours to spend waiting for the train to depart. Spent couple of hours sketching the FS train locomotive, before hearing the Binario changing for Milano train (of course they announced it only in Italian!).
The trick of hogging a whole compartment to myself is by choosing the farthest compartment: the middle ones, then shutting the door, curtains, and turning the lights off. I know it sounds so selfish, but I wanted to make sure that I could lie down and have a good night sleep for the
Duomo spires
The best angle to appreciate the Duomo is from the side, since the facade was covered with those damn scaffoldings. day ahead. Guess what, it worked. People were walking pass my compartment, and the train leaving confirmed that I finally had a whole compartment. Unfortunately, with the AC turned off (or even broke), I had to open the window, and the whole night, I was hypnotized by sound “clunk … clunk …” made by the rails. But I could sleep like a log throughout the night.
Arriving in Milan Arriving around 9:15am, my first destination was, of course, the
Duomo di Milano.
To my surprise, they had the Duomo under restoration, and scaffolding was built covering the façade of the Cathedral. Inside of the Duomo, huge columns remind me of massive tree trunks in a tropical jungle, dense and way up high to support the ceiling. It was dark inside, creating a calming and serene atmosphere with sunlight penetrates through the colorful tall rose windows all around us.
Across the street is the
Galleria Vittorio Emmanuelle II. Right in the middle of the structure underneath the main glass dome, the twelve western zodiacs was adorned the floor of the Galleria. I was enjoying seeing many tourists tried to do the “Taurus penis stepping”, which involves stepping
Massive columns
Tree trunk feeling of the columns. Inside a tropical jungle of stones? on the Taurus’ genitalia, and spinning three times for good luck.
Meeting my buddy Sergio around 11 am in front of the Duomo, we went to a café to have strong Espresso shots. And for the first time in many years, I was riding a moped again, across Milan to visit his place. He showed me how to cook spaghetti ala Italiano, involving tomatoes, olive oil, onions, and basil leaves, which seemed to be so simple, but not as simple as buying a jar of spaghetti sauce back home.
Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper After a couple of hours chilling in his place, Sergio dropped me off by the
Santa Maria delle Grazie, where the famous Leonardo da Vinci’s “the Last Supper” was painted. Well, it must be tough to be a famous mural, as da Vinci was experimenting the ingredients of the mural’s paints, they turned out not working as well as the regular paints, so almost immediately, the mural started to flake off the wall. The Italian government tries its best to preserve the work, with limiting the amount of visitors allowed to enter the church compound, having three different rooms for everyone
Galleria Vittorio Emmanuelle II dome
Dome shot of Galleria Vittorio Emmanuelle II. who enters the room where the vacuum works to cleanse the visitors off street dusts, and inside, almost no light, with air purifier and automatic temperature setting.
Because of the time required to go through all the hassle, there was a long line just to see the mural, mostly by groups of tourists. When I asked the ticket lady on how this would work, she initially told me that I had to wait for a couple of hours before my turn to see the mural. This was one time where my Italian charms works, as I tried my best to speak Italian to her, unlike the rest of the tourists; she actually asked whether I was alone. Then, as simple as that, she said that I could go in with the next tourist group, which had been waiting for at least three hours prior to the entrance. I couldn’t believe my ears, but of course I didn’t refuse. I paid my €6 entrance fee, and the next thing I knew, I was with a group of Germans, got purified at the first chamber.
Seeing the real
il Cenacolo (c.1497) was an unbelievable experience. As the symbol of the
western civilization and the most recognized artwork around the world, the mural portrays a calming mood of meditation. Although there is a no-no sign for taking pictures, I did it secretly without flash, and it turned out pretty well. There was a time limit for visitors, and unfortunately I had to move on.
Chiesa di San’Ambrogio and heading home to Rome The last activity before heading back to Rome was to visit a church dedicated to the saint patron of Milan, the San’Ambrogio church. During my freshman year in college, I had to reproduce a sketch of this church, and after having it done twice for 18 hours straight, of course I wanted to see the real one. I was amazed on how accurate the original sketch I had to work on with the angle of the church, and for the third time in my life, I was sketching a same view of the church. Ah, life could be weird sometimes.
Inside the church, I decided to join the Catholic mass, and after the mass, I had an opportunity to see the interior of the church more closely. Milan has a special thing with displaying their
San'Ambrogio
For the third time in my life, I sketch this view. But this time, the model is the real church with the same angle. dead, instead of having them inside a gorgeous marble tomb with statue of angels or else inside a church, they have the dead displayed in a glass coffin. Thus everyone could see a range of decomposition, but mostly are skeletons with colorful clothes worn by the dead. So, finally I met face to face with the Saint patron of Milan.
After the visit, it was time for me to head back to the Milano Centrale to catch my train to Rome.
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