The Springsteen concert marked a real turning point in the trip. After two days of plans falling apart and despite the threat of cancellation and all the logistical challenges of attending the concert, somehow we pulled it off. After that, our plans for the rest of the week went smoothly.
For today, we booked a guided walking tour of Milan. We booked ahead of time to guarantee access to see Lenardo da Vinci's Last Supper at the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie. Fortunately, we weren't scheduled to meet the tour group until 2.45 in the afternoon. So we were able to rest and sleep late and rest after the exertions of the concert last night. We did manage to get down to breakfast before it closed up just before ten, but did most of our grooming after eating and basically just relaxed at the hotel until we were ready to go for our tour. We decided that just taking a taxi to the Visitor's Center where we were to meet the tour would be easier than bus to Monza train station,train to Milan, and then cab or metro from Milan station to Visitor's Center and that even though that would likely be cheaper, it would be four fares and splitting a taxi four ways wouldn't be that expensive.
We arrived at the meeting point for our tour over an hour ahead of time and, therefore, had time for a late lunch before the tour. We found a small cafe, with an all-important gelateria, just around the corner. Near the Sforza Castle in Milan, it was called Bar Castello. We sat outside, but in the window near our table were several model castles and figurines depicting Templar knights. I had a glass of the house white wine (I think everyone else had soft drinks) and Lisa and split a large and delicious turkey panini. Rose had a pizza that was really good. Of course, we had to get gelato. I had the lemon flavour. Citrus gelato is really more like sorbet than ice cream, but this was about the best lemon gelato//sorbet I have ever had. A little tart and not too sweet. Italy really is citrus heaven...
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| Teatro alla Scala |
The tour was great. Our guide was very knowledgeable about the history of Milan and had amusing anecdotes to tell, although Rose thought he was a little curt with people who had questions. We were a group of 25 and he did a good job of keeping us all together crossing the busy streets of Milan and, later, riding the metro! We all had radios and headphones on which frequency he broadcast, so we could hear him and follow directions even if we lost sight briefly. The first stop was La Scala Opera House - arguably the most famous opera house in the world. Built in the 1770's, Verdi's first opera was performed there and Toscanini was the music director for a long time. We actually got to see the seating gallery, which is usually impossible due to the rehearsal schedule. The museum at La Scala contains a number of paintings of composers and performers. Two of the most memorable things were a sword Napoleon gave to a diva after being enamored by her performance and a piano that once belonged to Hungarian composer Franz Liszt.
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| Lisa and I at the Galleria |
On the way to the Duomo (cathedral) in Milan, we passed through the Galleria Vittorio Emanuale II. Built in the 1860.s and decorated with some beautiful mosiacs, it is the oldest shopping gallery in Italy. It is packed with restaurants and high-end stores. Even today all the shops have the same, uniform facades.
The Duomo is the largest church in Christendom, second only to the Basilica of St. Peter in the Vatican. Just inside the entrance, there is a meridian line. When a ray of light shining through and aperture in the roof hits the line, it is solar noon. It is still an active house of worship and decorum in a Church in Italy is a bit more conservative than in the U.S. Knees and shoulders must be covered to enter. If they are not, then you have to purchase a paper drape to wear while in the building.
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| Rose, Maria, Me, and Lisa at Duomo di Milano |
From the Duomo we had to take the metro to Santa Maria delle Grazie to see da Vinci's Last Supper. The trains were crowded as, by now, it was the end of the workday. With the headsets, though, we could hear the guide telling us where to get off the train and no one got separated from the group or missed the stop. We arrived around 6 PM and had an entrance time for the painting of 6.15. The painting itself is a fresco on the wall of what was the monastery's refectory, where the Dominican brothers took their meals. It takes up most of the wall and is enormous. You have to show your passport and be on "the list" to get into see the Last Supper and even if you don't do it as part of a tour, some sort of pre-booking is a must as during their open hours, they only allow 25 people at a time in the refectory for no more than 15 minutes. This is to protect the painting from heat and humidity. In fact, not only is the room humidified and temperature controlled, but you as a guest have to spend several minutes in an antechamber that cools you before enter the refectory! The number limit is, of course, to limit the aggregate body heat and the fifteen minutes is to get you out again before you are radiating as much body heat as you would have before cooling. Fifteen minutes sounds brief, but it was enough time for our guide to give a brief spiel about it and to have several minutes to sit and contemplate the majesty of the work in relative quiet and solitude. Because only our tour group was in there at the time and because the painting is so large, there was plenty of space to spread out, plenty of space for taking pictures (allowed so long as you don't use a flash), and it was easy to see the entire work. In many ways it was a much more enjoyable experience than standing packed like sardines in sea of people in the Sistine Chapel straining your neck to look at Michelangelo's ceiling.
Of course, everyone has seen pictures or reproductions of da Vinci's Last Supper. Growing up, my grandparents used to have a relief of the Last Supper on the wall in their hallway in which the configuration of the Apostles was modelled after da Vinci's work. In the five centuries since it was completed, it has become the standard image of Christ's last meal on Earth. It is hard, therefore, to put into words, the majesty of seeing the work in person. The best way, perhaps, is to contrast it with the other painting in the room. On the opposite wall of refectory is another contemporary fresco depicting the Crucifixion. It's very good (certainly better than I, or most of the readers of this blog, could produce) and the artist who painted it was obviously very talented. However, the style is more medieval in appearance with inconsistent scale and lack of depth perception. By contrast, da Vinci's work is precise in scale and symmetry. Despite the conceit of having everyone sitting on the same side of the table, it employs perspective well, with the window at the back of the room smaller than objects in the foreground. Every detail of faces, posture, muscles, the rippling of cloth, light and shadow is perfect and so real that if you stand close to da Vinci's painting you feel like YOU are in the upper room and YOU are seated across from Jesus and the Apostles.
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| The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci |
Without getting into all the conspiracy theories about hidden sacrilegious messages in the work, one thing I find fascinating about the content of the work is what da Vinci chose to depict. Most depictions of the Last Supper depict the consecration of bread and wine (even Spanish surrealist Salvador Dali was conventional in this regard), but Leonardo chose to depict the moment at which Christ announced to his Apostles that he was about to be betrayed. The chaos of the scene is the compilation of varied human reactions to such a shocking pronouncement that range from anger to denial, to disbelief, to confusion. This milieu of responses adds to the realism of the work. It truly is a masterpiece.
Unfortunately, our tour guide sort of ushered us out of Santa Maria without the opportunity to look in the gift shop. Although we had taken our own photos, Rose wanted a postcard depicting the Last Supper to have a better quality image. Our plans for the following day entailed an early start, so we decided that rather than hang out in Milan for the evening we would take a cab back to the hotel and have dinner somewhere near the hotel. Our guide had pointed the way to a taxi stand not far from Santa Maria and one difference between Milan and Monza is that taxis actually show up at taxi stands in Milan. We did not have to wait very long for a ride. We had decided to eat at Villa Realle again (Rose and Maria had not been there because they were not with us the first night in Monza) and took the cab straight there. It was a lovely cap to the day. As much as Lisa and I travel on our own, there is something to be said for shared adventures with friends and I really enjoyed the evening at the restaurant. I think I was the only one who enjoyed the meal, however. Lisa had a sausage and pasta dish that was different from the one I ordered on Monday and in more of a cream sauce. Rose had pizza, but at that point I think she was getting tired of eating it. Maria and I had the mixed grill, which was a little bit of a mixed bag. The sausage was only OK. The beef, however,was delicious - similar to the amazing beef Lisa and I shared in Florence over a decade ago. And the chicken practically fell off the bone. Limoncello and espresso again provided an excellent nightcap before walking back to the hotel.
