DAY 1 IN MILANO

The first thing we did was to take a taxi to our 
hotel, the Hotel Ambasciatori.  I loved saying 
the name!  Then we walked from there to the 
church of Santa Maria della Grazie, 
where we saw da Vinci's painting of The Last
Supper.  This is the church, built in the 1400's, 
ordered by the Duke of Milan, Francesco Sforza.

The painting is done right on the interior wall,
and the viewing is strictly regulated because it 
is so susceptible to damage by moisture.  The 
image is breathtaking.  da Vinci painted the
moment as he imagined it when Christ said to
his Apostles, "Verily, this night one of you will
betray me."  Each of the Apostles is depicted
with his personal reaction to this statement, and
part of their individual expressions is the position
of their hands, which tell a whole story themselves.
I find it incredible that the "Apostle" to the right
of Jesus is stubbornly labelled as John, when it
is so evident that is it a woman, and commonly
identified as Mary Magdalena.

At some point on our wandering through Milan,
or at least through the small area near the hotel
and Il Duomo, we passed the Stock Exchange, with
this bizarre sculpture directly across the street.

And, on the steps of the Stock Exchange, this vision
of an Italian stockbroker being gazed upon by the 
stone woman.

Later in the afternoon, we climbed the stairs of the
Duomo di Milano, the Gothic cathedral which is the 
fifth largest in the world, and which took nearly 600
years to complete.  It is overpoweringly beautiful.
Here are some photos from the approach to the 
cathedral, to different points along the climb up.

Unlike the usual Jesus, this is a statue of Mary, known as the
Madonnina, erected in 1762.  By tradition, no building in Milan
is higher than the Madonnina, so when two buildings were
constructed in 1950 and in 2010 which were taller, they had
replicas of the Madonnina set on top, so she is still the highest point
in the city.

I don't know who this is, but he's standing on an awful lot of women.

And we finally got to the very top….

That night, after collapsing back at the hotel for awhile,
we went out for a fabulous dinner at one of the outdoor
restaurants close by.  I had a seafood pasta, and on top
is a sea urchin - which I've never had before.  Salty and
delicious!

Lots of wine, and wayyy too much to eat, and the end of
a fabulous day….