Milan, Dahling

For all Milano pictures, click here.  

Picking up the kiddos from school, we set out on our drive to Italy.  Initially, J and I were all Swingers-era Vince Vaughn with our exclamations of, 'Italy, baby,' but our vim was quashed an hour into the drive as some sort of dark voodoo bewitched our DVD player:  the player chose to feature only one of the 30 or so DVD's we brought with us, and that DVD was one given to us as a gift and previously unscreened.  The movie was about a reindeer looking to find out the identity of his unknown father and featured a song-and-dance number in which the young buck asked Santa's team if any one of them remembered a late night Christmas flight with a doe!  

We drove on and refereed the bickering that ensued due to the lack of entertainment;  the license plate game held no appeal.

Much of our drive through Switzerland was dark as we drove through consecutive, seemingly endless tunnels bored through snow-capped Alps.  At the end of one tunnel, we found ourselves entering Italy and from the border it was a short drive to Milano, located in scenic lake country.

Finding no parking near to our hotel, located near the train station and lit in the brightest neon blue one can imagine, we walked a half mile in the rain with baggage and cranky kiddos in tow. 

After falling into our beds, we awoke to sunny skies the next morning:  things were looking up! We drove to Santa Maria delle Grazie to see da Vinci's fresco depicting The Last Supper.  

The fresco was located in the one-time refectory.  The fresco, untraditional in that it was painted in oil on semi-dry plaster, was closely protected with no photographs allowed.  In fact, strict measures were in place to protect the delicate art with only 20 people being admitted at a time in 15 minute blocks to view the fresco.  Escorts led visitors down a passage to one set of double doors that closed before the interior double doors opened into the refectory.   The fresco covered an entire end wall which gave the viewer the feeling of the room's continuation, and I'm sure, the monks the feeling that they were dining with Christ and the disciples.  An audio guide provided background information on the fresco stating the following:  da Vinci spent five years on the fresco though most of the time was spent in procrastination and devoted to other projects commissioned by il Moro; da Vinci's was the first known work of art to depict Judas on the same side of the table as the Lord; the painting was re-opened to the public in 1999 after more than 20 years were spent restoring the darkening fresco; and that during a French occupation, Napoleon boarded horses in the refectory as soldiers used the painting for target practice.  Seeing the fresco full-scale and so closely allowed me to notice diaphanous details:  the pattern of the table's linen, tapestries lining the hall where Christ supped, and the vivid expressions of the disciples.  

Entrance to The Last Supper, the highlight of Milano.

Courtyard of Santa Maria delle Grazie and our girls

Pock-marked fresco within the church.  Many of the church's frescoes had deteriorated into an unrecognizable state or were altogether missing with no efforts made to ornament the blank walls.

The Duomo, which featured sculptured reliefs that terrified Littlest with their graphic representations of Biblical stories.  

Log was drawn to the doors with sculptured crusaders.

J, Log and Bop climbed to the roof of the Duomo and looked out onto the piazza.  Matty, Littlest and I rested on the Duomo's steps and witnessed a penitent shouting lamentations in Italian as she violently waved a scrap of white cloth and threw bottled water onto the doors in what must have been her efforts at a mock anointing.

After a brief nap, we visited Sforza Castello, the strong hold of the Duchy of Milano.  The inner courtyard catered to loitering visitors who picnicked, napped, demonstrated trick frisbee skills, and engaged in blatant sexual activities as they unabashedly straddled one another and kissed passionately.  Whoever said Paris was for lovers had never traveled to Milano.  

I went through the Sforza museums accompanied by a priest while J and the kiddos ate gelato and ran around the dry moat.  The rooms were floridly decorated and boasted wonderful sculptures...

including one of Mary nursing Jesus.

Littlest's attempt at Italian fashion with her oversized sunglasses!

Having thoroughly explored the castello, the kiddos ran off some steam in Sempione Parc where we could not escape pairs of lovers or the ABBA music blaring from a Heineken disco bar. 

We then drove to the shopping gallery featuring every major label one would expect to find in Italy and by la Scala where fortunate guests were queueing for the evening's performance.  

That evening, it was easy to drift off to sleep thinking of Callas and Christ.