Thu Sept 18 – Happy 15th anniversary to our son and his wife, Darren and Carrie!

We took the train from Genoa to Milan in the morning and Dennis had determined that it was a quick metro ride and short walk from the train station to Hotel Roxy. Had to change metro lines making it a little challenging for our first day but we figured it out pretty quickly. Hotel Roxy was very nice and included a delicious breakfast. We wanted to make the most of our time here so we got started right away that afternoon. As we walked through town we saw many older buildings of the era we saw in Florence and Genoa, but there were also more modern structures around as well. We were talking to a local who said that much of Milan had to be rebuilt after WWII and they have mixed feelings about it. They lost a lot of historical artifacts and artwork but they got new infrastructure such as electricity and sewers.

We usually spend a considerable amount of time looking at websites like TripAdvisor and Lonely Planet for top-rated sites in the cities to which we are headed. Then we select the ones that sound best to us and locate them the minute we get a map of the city. We plan our day(s) and determine if we can utilize the local mass transit or if it will be all walking. Florence has no metro (subway). Genoa was all walking too except for our return to the hotel at the end of the day as we walked our way across town to one of the metro stations (the metro did only a half circle loop around the city). Milan however has a metro that goes north, south east and west AND surface trollies that hit several points in between. So we used the metro the whole time in Milan and we got around very quickly to several sights.

Our first destination was the Piazza of Santa Maria delle Grazie to see if we could get a reservation to see Da Vinci’s Last Supper. They told us we had to do it either with their phone ordering system (which they didn’t recommend as it was overwhelmed that week) or on the internet. We continued on to the Basilica S. Ambrogio which was a red brick building on the outside – not as fancy as other basilicas we had seen, until we got inside. There we saw lots of ornamentation and art work – lovely. We then took a bus outside of town to the “Monumental Cemetery” which some of the guides mentioned as a ‘must see’. As we walked from the bus stop to the cemetery, there was a very modern multicolored building standing in strange juxtaposition. It looked so out of place. This seemed to reinforce what we heard about the mixed character of Milan from locals. There was lots to see at the cemetery –statuary mostly with a good helping of massive mausoleums. The cemetery is huge with hundreds if not thousands of exceptional monuments. We could have spent hours touring the place but we arrived at 1600 and were told the cemetery closes at 1700.

That night we went online and got 2 of the remaining 5 spots available for viewing the Last Supper for the following day – Virginia was so happy; but the follow-on email that they promised us which would have our confirmation number never arrived. Virginia spent a lot of time on the phone line waiting only to be disconnected – not so happy.

Fri Sept 19 First stop was the train station to get our tickets for Venice. The Milan train station is beautiful. We then headed for the famous shopping mall, Galleria Vittorio Emmanuel. The building is a work of art itself. And with Milan being one of the international centers for the fashion industry, it was no surprise to see that it houses many of the big designers – Versace, Prada, to name a few. In the center of the mall were a male and female model posing. There was a big crowd around them. We assumed they were doing a professional photo shoot, but they were actually posing for us the tourists to snap pics. The woman looked quite glamourous. The man’s outfit was….interesting – see the photos in out Photo Gallery section of this blog site.

The Galleria is next to the Duomo which of course is where the Milan Cathedral is located. The gothic style of the church is very striking after viewing the cathedrals of Florence and Genoa which are more Romanesque and less flamboyant. An interesting contrast however was that as overwhelming as the exterior is with gargoyles, towers, flying buttresses, etc., the interior is markedly understated as compared to the other two. The square adjoining the cathedral was also more decorative than in the previous cities with huge granite and marble mosaics.

All around Milan we saw advertisements for the 2015 World Expo which is being held in Milan. At one spot was a shop constructed in a plaza where you could buy 2015 expo souvenirs now….just in case you weren’t going to make it back next year for the event. The Castello Sforzesco was huge and quite well preserved with a beautiful reflecting pool in the courtyard. Next to it was a large public park. We wandered through there thoroughly enjoying the mature trees and great variety of vegetation, ponds, statuary, and bridges. At one end was a gigantic entrance gate with bronze horses with chariots atop. This was a day for walking in the park as we also wandered through the Giardini Public Park on our way back to the hotel with a light sprinkle of rain to add romance.

We decided to make one last desperate attempt and just show up at the reservation time, but they wouldn’t let us in without the confirmation number. Virginia pleaded with them to look us up by our name but they said they didn’t have that capability. Bummer. So instead we visited the Galleria d’Italia Piazza della Scala. It housed some modern art and the styles didn’t appeal to us so we didn’t spend a lot of time there. Dennis noticed a few movie theaters during our travels throughout the city, so he spent some time online trying to locate one that regularly ran ‘Originale’ movies (English audio with Italian subtitles). He thought he found one within walking distance of our hotel and playing a movie that we might find interesting, so off we went knowing that we’d have a late or no dinner that night. At the ticket window, Dennis asked to confirm the movie was “originale” but the lady’s response was “No, Italiano” –rats, dubbed. So we found a nice restaurant on the way back to the hotel and had another fresh Italian pasta dinner.

Sat Sept 20 We had a train to catch around noon. Dennis wanted to get in one more museum – namely the National Museum of Science and Technology (the largest museum of its kind in Italy) which also had another da Vinci exhibit of his drawings executed in wooden models including an automated mechanical loom! Virginia stayed at the hotel packing and working on internet. Dennis loves science centers and Virginia knew it would be hard for him to limit himself to the short time available. He did spend as much time as he possibly could and found her waiting in the hotel lobby with bags at her feet when he returned –with just enough time to walk to the train station. On to Venice!