MILANO

Arrived around 4:30 to Milan.  Hotel was just a few blocks away.  Checked in and headed out to find the art gallery housing the majority of the paintings in Milan.  Walked forever.  I was exhausted.  Got to the museum 45 minutes before closing, but the admission fee was pretty cheap, so we figured we would give it a shot and come back in the morning if we needed another look.  Well................in 15 minutes we had identified all six paintings that are at this museum.  Jude would be so proud.  Last summer he was with us in Hamburg and was the scout for the museums there.  He tore through the major museum pointing out the rooms we needed to visit.

I know it sounds like we are running around like idiots looking for our precious paintings.  In some cases that is true, but most of the time we are leisurely wandering around enjoying it all.  Ray tends to want to read everything, while I get distracted pretty quickly. I guess even as a kid he was like that.  When his family visited the museum at West Point when he was 11 or 12 he read everything there much to the annoyance of the rest of the family.  I am chuckling now just thinking about his brother Ted going bonkers.  Ted is one of the most hyper people I know.

Okay, so after our great success at the museum I needed food.  There was a great little bar right there and for 7 euro you got a drink (beer or wine) and a buffet meal.  The plates were small, but you could pile it on which I did.

After refueling we decided to try to find the Duomo.  Holy Cow!  Now that is a church.  The pictures speak for themselves.  Right next to the Duomo is the Galleria which connects the Duomo to La Scala.  The Galleria was one of the first shopping areas of its kind.  I was not real impressed with the shops there.  Sure there was a Prada and Louis Vuitton, but some of the other stuff didn't excite me. Got some gelato and headed home.

Thursday morning was the highlight of the trip.  We had timed tickets to see the Last Supper.  It is in a very small convent in an out of the way place.  They only let 25 people in at a time for 15 minutes.  I guess I never really looked at the mural that closely before.  Usually most last suppers depict the breaking of the bread.  This one shows the reaction of the 12 when Jesus said one of them would betray him.  Okay, Ray has added a photo of the da Vinci's Last Supper from the internets so everyone can take a look. Interesting, huh?

We had one last assignment.  It was a foundation with one painting.  Got there early, so went to a small shop and had coffee.  Ray took a picture of the place.  It reminded me of a convenient store with a great spread of food.  When we finally got back to the foundation we were told we could not see the painting.  I guess we had to make arrangements ahead of time.  There was a language problem (our problem).  The old gal spoke Italian, of course, a bit of English, Spanish and French. 

Oh well...back to see the interior of the Duomo.  They do screen for proper attire.  No sleeveless tops, but you can wear shorts.  Makes no sense to me.  Ray took a lot of pictures.  Some didn't turn out real great because of the darkness inside and the prohibition of flash photography.

Ray took a trip to the top and I stayed down on earth.  I rarely accompany him up the stairs.  I can barely get up our 3 flights back home.

Tram back to the hotel to get our luggage and off to the airport to return to Amsterdam.
Pretty great trip.

Sep 06, 2012 Milan