Milano--The Finale

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Our day and a half spent in Milan were quite a contrast to the previous few in Cinque Terre! Back in a big city, we readjusted quickly to the pace and hit the ground running... After a tortuous three hour train ride, where we were plagued with luggage storage problems, we arrived to blue skies in Milan, and decided to take advantage of the good weather (since rain was predicted for the next day) and squeeze in some sight seeing before dark. We easily mastered the user-friendly metro system and headed to the Duomo. We waded through the hordes of tourists crowding the piazza, wandered through the massive interior of the church, then climbed up to the roof, where amazing views awaited amidst the stone spires, saints, and gargoyles...

The next day, we returned to the Duomo to go underground this time, where an archaeological excavation that began in the 1950's, uncovered ruins of a Roman-era basilica which once fronted the city's forum, and subsequent ruins of 5th century and 9th century early Christian basilicas. Next we visited San Lorenzo Maggiore Church, also built over Roman and early Christian ruins.

Then, having had our fill of churches, we did a 180 degree turn and spent several hours in the best-kept secret of Milan: The Leonardo DaVinci National Museum of Scence and Technology. We barely scratched the surface of this amazing place! Its exhibits range from a full-scale recreation of part of a Falck Steel Foundry, to the history of telecommunications, to rooms set up as a medieval pharmacy and a clock maker's workshop. There are exhibits on biotechnology, energy production, and models of Leonardo DaVinci's inventions. There was even a room showcasing historic musical instruments, as part of an exhibit on sound, with live piano music! In between are labs for children and families to experiment with ideas presented in the exhibits, with the guidance of trained museum staff. It truly warmed the heart of a former museum educator like myself to see such well-developed and interactive exhibits.

We finished up our day with the requisite visit to Santa Maria del Grazie Church to see the Last Supper. (Fortunately, I had remembered to reserve tickets in advance. It was sold out for the next 2 weeks!) Due to conservation issues, each group is allowed only 15 minutes in the Refectory building where it is located, accompanied by a guide. But I was more impressed than I expected. It is made pretty clear that none of the paint remaining is Leonardo's original, but given the unstable painting technique used by Leonardo, the numerous (mostly bad) restorations over the centuries and what the building has been through (bombed out during WWII), it's amazing that it exists at all. But it was the composition and emotion of the painting, the moment captured that impressed me.

We had great food both nights in Milan, but especially enjoyed our second night at Brasserie Mediterranea, not too far from our hotel. There we turned ourselves over to our gregarious waiter, and once we told him it was the last night of our trip, he came up with a menu that was perfect to close out our adventures, featuring porcini mushrooms ala milanese and bistecca ala fiorentina, and a lovely bottle of Chianti Classico. We went back to the hotel full and fortified for the grueling day ahead of us, and toasted the trip with the remains of the limoncino we had brought with us from Cinque Terre. Somehow we had managed to cover all the Italian regions of our trip with our own "last supper"!

And that ends the tale. Thanks to all my faithful readers, who put up with my untimely blogging, encouraged me with positive feedback, and are now breathing a sigh of relief that my recounting of this trip has come to an end--a mere 2 weeks after returning home!!

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