Ciao Milano

Milano (Milan) was not at all what I had expected, and something of a disappointment. However we stayed just the one night so it may be unfair to judge by that short visit. Still, for a city hosting the country's major Expo, I thought they would have tried harder to make first impressions count. If not for the viewing of The Last Supper (and the attendant tour) and the marvellous company of our gracious host, this would have been even more disappointing.
The train trip from Torino was quick and comfortable and Milan's Stazione Centrale is truly an amazing piece of architecture. It was worthwhile just appreciating that station while searching high and low for the baggage check-in (they call it "left luggage" which I always find amusing...what is not amusing is how badly the signs are arrayed to send you in circles for an hour until you finally find the luggage dropoff in a tiny corner with no outside signage worth a damn). Visitor information (Ufficio di informazione tourismo)  is non-existent, with the exception of information on the city's Expo. I am pretty sure the porter I approached for assistance told me to go pound sand (or something a little more crude since it seemed to be only one word :-)).
The underground tube is very fast and nicely laid out if you are familiar with a city Metro service. We took a single train to La Piazza del Duomo, and the Cathedral there in the Piazza is truly an incredible work. We met with our guide, Andrea, and began the tour that would end with a 15 minute (solo cinquante minuti!) viewing of the Last Supper, the fresco (sort of) painting by Leonardo da Vinci. If you didn't know already, Leonardo's "my guy"...I am fascinated by all of his creations and his life, so any chance to see any of his work is going to draw me like a hungry dog to a fresh steak. Andrea was an absolute font of wisdom on everything that had to do with Leonardo's life in Milan (he lived there for 24 years) so I hung on everything she had to say. The walking tour covered a lot of history and took over three hours. A surprise opportunity that we discovered on the way was to see an interesting unfinished work by Michaelangelo (see picture). This is "La Pieti" capturing Mary's grief as they lowered Christ from the cross. Bonus!
Leonardo's famous painting of the Last Supper is truly a wonder. It was never a real fresco (painting on wet plaster) but rather used tempura painting on a dry wall, and therefore has not born the test of time and ravages of temperature, humidity, wars and vandalism as many other famous works. But the restorations have been very effective in cleaning up as much of the image as possible to expose Leonardo's brilliant color application. Once again we are brought back to an ancient time and walking the footprints of the master. Elisabetta and I both felt very emotional in the presence of the maestro's work.
After a visit to do some sketching and photos of the Castello Sforzesco, we headed out to Via Collecchio where we met our BnB host, Chiara, and were invited to join her and her friends for a dinner party in her garden. It was truly the best part of our visit as we shared molti vino e cucina e divertimente (lots of wine, food and laughs) with a very friendly group of Italians. We invited them all home to Nova Scotia and they promised to come one of those Christmases in the future.
Ciao, Milano - and now onward to Siena and Tuscany.