Brown Girl in London

Milano

The Milan trip is over now - we got back yesterday. Three days in Milan is more than enough as there isn't alot to see or do in terms of sightseeing. It's touted as a prime fashion capital and an international city with flair but I have to say I wasn't that impressed with the city itself. However, we did run into a few snags during our trip, mostly at night. If those hadn't happened it might have been somewhat more enjoyable. Don't get me wrong though, I had a good time overall and I'm glad I went - I mean it is Milan after all!

The best part of the trip for me happened right at the beginning. And this isn't just a "best" in relation to the rest of the trip, it's a "best" as in it really was amazing. This was viewing da Vinci's The Last Supper. On Thursday morning we got up bright and early and headed to the Cenacolo Vincianzo at the Santa Maria delle Grazie church for our 8:15am appointment to view. We got out tickets and walked through 2 sets of automatic doors that, what I guess were for security reasons, only once the set you passed was closed would the one you were to go through next would open. Anyway, I walked into a dimly lit large room where the walls were of stone and looked up to the right - and there it was. Painted across a huge wall, I have no idea how big, was the Last Supper and when I saw it it was like a punch in the gut - in a good way. That's the only way I can describe it - it's magnificent even if it is getting blurry with age and you can't see the feet of the apostles very well and alot of the detail is fading, but the faces, I found those very clear. One of the defining features of da Vinci's masterpiece is that he didn't just paint the scene, he painted the emotions of the people at the moment Jesus announced his upcoming betrayal. Seeing something that is so famous, so old, and yet such a part of popular culture, (hello, the Da Vinci code anyone? and you really can see the dagger, and the disciple to Jesus' right could definitely pass for female), is a memory I'm always going to be grateful for, just this one thing made the trip to Milan worth it.

posted by RC @ 11:32 AM