Milan: Eat, Pray, Love

It is fashion week in Milan. Exciting to see the catwalk set ups and photographers waiting around for shows. The shop windows have the most adorable, smart dresses, bags, coats, etc. One shop window had layers upon layers of wool for men to choose from to have suits made. All the people are chic; no sweats or team logo t-shirts.

Our little boutique hotel, Antica Locando Leonardo, is around the corner from Santa Maria delle Grazie, home to Leonardo’s Last Supper. We didn’t even realize this until we took a tour and found ourselves there sitting in our backyard.
The hotel is almost walking distance to other major sites, the Duomo, la Scala, and the Galleria. Almost meaning for most reasonable people. Us? We’ve walked the 3 miles twice a day. I just figure it’s a good way to work off the pasta and chianti.
I wish I could find new words to describe places and sights we are seeing other than amazing, beautiful, unprecedented, etc. I’ll use Gasp to explain the Duomo. It is the 8th largest Cathedral in the world. It holds 40,000 people and is made entirely of marble. There are 3 very large stained glass windows in the nave that illustrate the bible. But, more than the interior, the roof exemplifies the craftman’s magic. It is pure eye candy. Every inch of marble carved. The photos don’t do it justice.
The Galleria, a covered glass-vaulted arcade connects the Duomo with Teatro Alla Scala. It is filled with luxury shops and restaurants.
la Scala is quite plain and small. Our guide said that opening night tickets go as high as $2000. The interior looks a lot like Teatro dell’Opera in Rome, oval with boxes set into the walls. There is a small museum with paintings and sculptures of performers, conductors and composers. They have Verdi’s cast death mask and hand.
Lastly today we saw The Last Supper. Visits are very controlled; 25 persons are allowed every 15 minutes. The painting has survived many poor and misguided restorations as well as a WWII bombing. Gazing upon it, the context of it’s history is more thought provoking and moving than the work itself.
Tonight we walked to the Brera district for dinner. This is an area of narrow streets, bars, shops and galleries. Our meal was average. But the atmosphere was lively and nice.
What a wonder it is! So grand, so solemn, so vast! And yet so delicate, so airy, so graceful! A very world of solid weight, and yet it seems …a delusion of frostwork that might vanish with a breath!… The central one of its five great doors is bordered with a bas-relief of birds and fruits and beasts and insects, which have been so ingeniously carved out of the marble that they seem like living creatures– and the figures are so numerous and the design so complex, that one might study it a week without exhausting its interest…everywhere that a niche or a perch can be found about the enormous building, from summit to base, there is a marble statue, and every statue is a study in itself…Away above, on the lofty roof, rank on rank of carved and fretted spires spring high in the air, and through their rich tracery one sees the sky beyond. … (Up on) the roof…springing from its broad marble flagstones, were the long files of spires, looking very tall close at hand, but diminishing in the distance…We could see, now, that the statue on the top of each was the size of a large man, though they all looked like dolls from the street… They say that the Cathedral of Milan is second only to St. Peter’s at Rome. I cannot understand how it can be second to anything made by human hands. Mark Twain