Milan - day 2

The wine tasting last night was a lot of fun, we had about 5 different prosecco drinks to taste accompanied by substantial snacks of different cheeses and cold meats as are traditionally served with the Milanese apertivo. Good thing they were hearty snacks as my dinner at the restaurant after that was truly awful - some random off cuts of fish that was not cooked, unappealing and totally inedible. However the company was great fun and we were laughing so much it was a shock to realise it was midnight and time to call it a night and walk back to the hotel. 

We were up quite early for breakfast as we had to meet our guide at 9.30am. We are a group of 24 people divided into two groups of 12 with a guide each. We started off in the Brera district which is the arty area and then went to see the art at the Brera Academia. Our guide studied art history and was very knowledgeable about art from the period of the 14th to the 17th century. We spent over 2 hours there which suited me fine as it was raining outside. The blip is from a section of the courtyard at the Academia, and I also have an extra of some of the polyptych art which was so beautiful and ornate.

We had a break for lunch and then walked in the rain to visit Sforzesco Castle (see extra). It was raining continuously now which was a bit annoying. This was followed by a visit to see the beautiful frescoes at San Maurizio church. They were absolutely breath taking, and there was also another version of the Last Supper there (the Last Supper was a common subject to paint). 

Back out into the rain to see the famous version of the Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci at Santa Maria della Grazie. It is painted on a wall of the refractory in a convent, and da Vinci used a different technique to that usually used when painting frescoes. He realised afterwards that it was the wrong technique and sadly it has not stood the test of time. It is decaying and will not last forever. It has been restored for the final time and there is now no more that can be done to save it. Numbers are limited to enter the room to view it, and one is given a very strictly timed 20 minutes before you have to go out again. Unfortunately no cameras are allowed in there so I did not get a photo of it.


It was a long and quite tiring day, and we got back to the hotel with a few minutes to spare before we had to find some early supper before we went to La Scala for the opera. La Scala was a surprise to me - it is much smaller than the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden and it is six floors high with small boxes consisting of only 6 seats running around each floor. I did not realise when I booked that in each box there are only 2 seats and the remaining 4 places are padded stools - would never have guessed that for the price of the tickets! I enjoyed the opera, it was Mozart's La Finta Giardiniera which is very amusing, but three and a half hours sitting on a stool was extremely uncomfortable.


Tomorrow is our last day here - it has been a jam packed 2 days with very little down time, and those incredible shops have been so tantalising as we walk past but don't have time to go in. Milan certainly is the centre of the fashion industry and a city of  enormous style, I have never seen anything before quite like these beautiful fashion shops.