The Deserted Streets of Milan

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Hi Everyone!
I have often had the sneaking suspicion in my life that I am lacking an important female gene. This female gene is responsible for appreciating shoes and handbags. It is also responsible for the strange compulsion that women seem to have that won’t allow them to leave their home without paint on their face. It is probably a good thing for this trip that I don’t have this mystery female gene because if I spent the same amount of money on makeup and accessories that most women do I couldn’t have afforded this trip. Has anyone checked the cost of makeup lately? $6 dollars for a jar of nailpolish? Crazy!
Even though I don’t understand high fashion, I thought I would make a trip to Milan and explore the mystery. I have always thought of Milan as being on the cutting edge of fashion. Its inhabitants are supposed to be connoisseurs of style. I came to Milan with this image of runway like streets in which stylish people strolled around going about their business. I wish I could tell you that I now know the truth, however the week that I was in Milan there wasn’t anyone else there. I suppose technically that wasn’t true. There were other tourists there. A few of them anyway; most of them being sensible enough to plan their trip to avoid the mid-august vacation. I literally walked 10 blocks from my hostel to the subway station in the middle of the day without seeing another person on the street. Even though the tourist sites were open: churches, museums, and parks. Almost all the shops were closed, even some of the grocery stores. Fortunately you can always count on McDonalds, so I didn’t starve. Milan minus its inhabitants is a very pretty city. I would imagine it would still be pretty if there were people there but I don’t know. I saw the Dumo, Milan’s gothic cathedral, the castle, and Leonardo Da Vinci’s Last Supper fresco which decorates an entire wall of the Santa Maria della Grazie church. The Last Supper is a lot larger than I pictured it. I had assumed that it would be small like the Mona Lisa. Normally you have to make reservations weeks ahead of time, but since there wasn’t anyone in Milan in the middle of August I only had to wait an hour.
I also took a day trip to see Lake Como. For 7 Euro round trip from Milan it is more than worth it to see this beautiful lake surrounded by the Alps. Even the excess of tourists (probably were all the residents of Milan went) couldn't distract from its utter beauty.

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Photos

Prada window display
I think that handbag is horribly ugly and definately not worth hundreds of Euro. And is it just me or do these mannequins look like aliens?

My feet in the fountain
I spent an hour here just enjoying having cool feet.

Santa Maria della Grazie
Home of the Last Supper. During WWII when the church was bombed, percautions were taken to protect the fresco and it survived the bombings.

The last supper museum picture
It labels the apostles in Italian. Their names are similar for the most part. Giovanni threw me for a minute.

The Last Supper
Its a bad picture, but I had to sneek.

The Kiss
My favorite painting at the art museum. It was a free day and the line was 2 hours long. I didn't know why the line was so long until I got to the door and they were handing out free tickets. 10 Euro saved.

Gravestone sculpture
This was in the monumental cemetery, which was recommended to me as having many interesting statues. This one looks like a man about to throw a helicopter propeller standing over the decapitated head of medusa.

Comments

[jenny's dad]

prada aliens
I think you are on to something, the fashion industry is operated by aliens from another planet. This explains everything!