Milan

Tuesday 13^th August

We had to leave the peace, calm  and serenity of Cernobbio, and make our way to Milan. There was a great schemozzle at the Como train station, - lots of people leaving and no trains to take them away. The train we had tickets for was going to be either 15 or 59 minutes late, no one was sure. We didn’t really mind as we had made sure we had plenty of time before we had to be at the Milan Duomo by 2:15. Several other people were trying to make train connections for Venice or Paris and were getting rather anxious. A train pulled in and everyone scrambled aboard, only to realise that it was going to Milan, but not to Milan Centrale Station, but another station in Milan. Again, we were Ok, but some rather frustrated, or irate, or resigned others were not. When we arrived in Milan we bought a Public Transport Day Pass, and made our way to Milan Centrale. Our hotel was about 200 metres from the station and we just walked around.

Hotel New York – sounds flash, but is very basic. Clean and convenient, which is what we wanted for one night. Tomorrow we are to take the train from Milan to Zurich, and then on to Prague, hence the choice of hotel so close to the train station.

The hotel staff gave us a map and said it was a 30 minute walk, maybe a bit longer because signora will want to see the shops. After an hour, we were still only half way, and signora had not looked in any shops! With a 3 hour walking tour coming up, we got on the Metro.

We had booked a 3 hour walking tour of Milan that included entrance to see The Last Supper, as you must pre book to see it. We met the tour group outside the Duomo, and our guide gave us a comprehensive overview of the exterior and interior of Milan Cathedral. It was started building in 1386 and  continued until early 1800’s. The final touches were added in 1965. It was damaged during WW2 and restoration work was carried out after the war. Milan was heavily bombed during the war, as well as other important land marks, such as La Scala and the building  that houses The Last Supper. All were quickly restored after the war, as symbols of Milan’s endurance. Milan’s Duomo is incredible – 1000’s of statues, gargoyles, spires – nothing exceeds  like excess.No relics on display, but there were 3 dead cardinals in glass coffins for all to see.

The tour took us past the Victor Emmanuele 2Galleria, a high end shopping plaza, La Scala, Leonardo’s statue, The Sforza Castle, and finally to The church of S. Maria della Grazie, and the former Dominican monastery dining room which houses The Last Supper.

We had just 15 minutes to view this painting. It is much bigger than we expected, and fascinating to see. A lot of restoration work has removed all the previous “restoration” which really was repainting, however the painting is still faded and flaky. Apparently Leonardo used a different technique to the regular fresco painting, which didn’t last. In fact, the picture started to deteriorate almost as soon as it was finished.

The tour concluded and we restored ourselves with a truly fabulous gelato from a shop called Shockolat, quite close to The Last Supper. Most of the ice creams are chocolate, using real chocolate, and were superb.

We made our way back to the Duomo – Dick to see an exhibition and Mary to ride the elevator to the top of the Duomo and to do some shopping. Dick’s exhibition closed at 6:30, as did the elevator. Thwarted! So, we thought we would go to Caffe Camparino, where perhaps Campari was invented, but it, too, had closed at 6:30.

The tour was an efficient way to see the ”big ticket items” of Milan, and a day in Milan is probably enough, unless you are going to the opera or have thousands of euro to spend in the fabulous shops. Well, for us, the opera is closed for all of August, and we did not have thousands to spend.

Eventually we got back to the hotel and the Indian receptionist recommended a typical Italian Cucina  for dinner, just down the road. The restaurant is run by Chinese and has pictures of Paris on the walls. Milan is a cosmopolitan city!. The food was very good, as was the wine and we staggered back to bed. We had been walking around Milan from midday to nearly 9:00pm.