It Begins....

Saturday, April 2nd

Today is our first full day in Italy! I can't believe that we are really here! Last night we decided to take the the metro from our hostel to have dinner and were surprised when we got to the metro stop and it was gated up. Strike. Happily, it was only during certain times and it was totally fine for us today. Hopefully tomorrow it will be fine as well as we are taking an early train to Venice in the morning.

But back to today.... We started our day with another tour, which is something we don't usually do very often on our trips. However, in this case, we needed to take the tour so that we could see the Last Supper by Leonardo Di Vinci. I had spent about 3 weeks trying to make phone reservations (the only way you can make reservations) without being able to speak to a real person. So in desperation, I booked a tour that included the Last Supper. I am so glad that I did. I also should say that I have enjoyed riding around and seeing the city more. Might try to do that with public buses here and there instead of always taking the metro.

Our tour started with a bus ride around Milan which was interesting. They have beautiful buildings here with lots of plant covered balconies and garden roof tops. Our first stop was the Scala Opera House. It is quite famous and it is GORGEOUS inside. Unfortunately, there is no photography inside, but imagine a huge opera house with many rows of red velvet box seats, gold trim and fabulous chandeliers.

Next we went to the Duomo, which is the Italian name for church. Milan's duomo is 4th largest in the Western world, after Seville, St. Paul's, and the Vatican. It has amazing gothic architecture! Kayla's professor here described it as a wedding cake on steroids. The entire thing is made from marble. It was very pretty inside as well and especially nice as they were doing a service at the time and the priest looked splendid in his purple robes against all of the gold gilding. Lori, I lit a candle here for you! I got it right this time! :~)


Next was Sforza Castle, home to the Duke of Milan who ruled the city-state of Milan. Not much to look at really, but we did not have much time here.

Last was the Last Supper. Totally worth it. It is huge and very magnificent, even in its crumbling state. Leonardo used an experimental technique to paint this and it started chipping and fading within just a few years of its completion. We decided that Dan Brown had it correct and that "St. John" IS really Mary Magdeline. She really is the only feminine "disciple". Unfortunately, there was no photography here either.... Sorry!

Our last stop of the day was the roof-top of the Duomo. It was Fabulous!! I will just post pictures as they will tell the story better than I can. As you look at them, keep in mind that every post and carving is different.....

Milan was a great stop to see the Duomo and Last Supper. It is also a great place to get over your jet lag as it is not a demanding site-seeing destination.

***I am not able to post pictures right now--hopefully when we have better internet!*****