Milan Day 2

On Saturday we had a busy day planned.  We would like to say we got a really early start but the jet leg seemed to catch up to us.  We slept in a little later than we planned and we were on the move by 10.  We had an 11 AM appointment to view the famous da Vinci painting, The Last Supper.  The painting is housed inside of the refectory of the convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie which was about a mile walk from our hotel.  We could have taken public transportation or a cab but the cab would have probably cost us $10 or so and the public transportation would have taken more time than walking because we would have had to take a bus to a train and still walk a few blocks.  Because of this we decided to walk.  We arrived with time to spare before our 11:00 tour started and we kind of mingled around the public square outside of the church and convent waiting for our tour to begin.  They do not allow anyone to visit the painting whenever you like.  You need to book a spot on a tour and the tours sometimes sell out months before.  Luckily, being winter and the off-season we were able to get a spot on a tour only a few weeks before our trip.  Unfortunately, pictures are not allowed inside of the church where the painting is housed.  They take you through the church and allow you to view the painting for about ten minutes before continuing the tour of the church and grounds.  Before entering the room where the painting is held they put you through a series of rooms where the doors close behind you before the doors in front of you open, allowing the air to remain a stable temperature where the painting is held.  The tour guide (ours was in English) gives you the history of the painting and they go into a great amount of detail about what is being portrayed in the painting.  After the tour we went inside of the Santa Maria delle Grazie church (Church of the Holy Mary of Grace).  Like most churches we have visited over the last few years on our trips, this old church (built in 1497) was quite impressive.  While it initially didn’t seem overly impressive from outside the inside was quite spectacular.  After closer inspection of the outside however, we did find that there was quite a bit of detail designed into the building.  What we did find kind of odd was on the outside of this centuries old building (and on other historically significant buildings throughout the city) were huge modern advertisements draped over the side of the building.  That did not impress us.  On our tour of the church we learned that many of the churches around the city actually close and lock their doors during lunch because they were finding that during lunch hours art work was being stolen while no one was around.  Because of this we only had 10-15 minutes to do our self-guided tour of the church.

Plaza where we waited for our tour

Entrance to the Last Supper with ugly advertisements

Santa Maria delle Grazie Church

Some of the detail outside the church

Courtyard inside the church grounds

Our "Holding area"

After seeing the Last Supper and church we walked a few blocks to the train station that we had arrived at the day before so we could catch our tour bus.  We booked a 2 day pass on one of the hop on/hop off busses that circle the city per the recommendation of someone at work.  We figured this would be a good way to get an overview of the city and if we saw something we liked we could get off and get on a later bus to continue the tour.  We had no idea where exactly the bus stopped so we asked a police officer who seemed to have no idea whatsoever what we were talking about.  Even when we showed her the brochure she still did not know.  Just as we started walking away we spotted our bus, LEAVING our stop.  At least now we knew what to look for and we also knew that 5 minutes later that same bus would be only a two blocks away, so we headed for that bus stop to get on.  

The bus stop sign we had to look for

The bus arrived right on time, about 3 or 4 minutes after we got there and we took our seats on the upper deck, where it turned out to be pretty cold!  The tour bus was bright, big and it really stood out, especially in the narrow, European style streets.  Many people on the streets looked up at the bus as we drove by with looks on their faces as if they had never seen the bus before.  Being from NY we thought this was crazy because every time we go into the city we see nothing but tour busses!  We rode around for about 45 minutes and got off near the center of the city close to the Duomo of Milan and the Teatro alla Scala.  We were now getting hungry so we found a nice little café with outdoor seating (heated) where we enjoyed a great lunch of pizza and pasta followed by a panna gelato.

Our tour bus

We did have the top deck to ourselves for a bit

From the front of the tour bus driving down the streets of Milan

Panna - Thanks Angela!

After lunch we headed to Teatro alla Scala, which is a world renowned opera house in Milan.  While like the Last Supper, pictures were not allowed inside we were able to watch a brief portion of a practice session from one of the upper interior boxes.  While we are not opera fans we decided that we would have to try and make an effort to return to Milan when we are in Italy in August to see a show there.  It was that impressive.

Teatro alla Scala

Statue of Leonardo across from la Scala

After the Teatro alla Scala we started walking towards the Duomo.  We first passed through Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, which is an impressive shopping area covered by a high, arched glass ceiling.  While we could not afford to shop in any of the stores (Prada, Gucci, etc) we were once again impressed by the architecture.  

Entrance to A Vittorio Emanuele II

Our next stop was the Duomo di Milano (Cathedral of Milan).  This was by far the most impressive church or cathedral we have ever seen.  The cathedral, we learned, is the fifth largest in the world, and took nearly 600 years to build!  While on Saturday we really only toured the inside, when we returned on Sunday we really stopped to get a closer look and appreciate the detail that made up the building.

Inside the Duomo

By the time we got out of the Duomo it had started to rain so we decided to head back to the hotel for a little while.  Before we got on the train we passed a McDonald’s restaurant which had something unusual on the menu that we had never seen before:  the Tastes of America burgers.  We did not get one but thought that was different.  We arrived back at the hotel, rested up for a little while and decided to take a walk outside for a bit.  We borrowed some umbrellas from the concierge and walked around a bit.  We had planned on maybe revisiting one of the areas the tour bus had passed by earlier in the day where we saw quite a few bars and cafes but after taking the subway there, because of the rain, most places had lines to get in.  So we hopped on one of the trolleys that go around the city and headed back towards our hotel.  A few blocks away we spotted a small café where we went inside and had an enjoyable meal with several strong drinks.

The Lover Cafe where we had dinner