A day in Milano...

First impressions of Milan, if Brooklyn is a rust belt city - then Milan is a rustier rust belt city. The central train station is like KC's union station blended with an active major airport. Huge video advertising, shopping, food, people, pigeons, trains and a metro subway system all come together in one spot. It's huge and impressive and fun.

The subway system, like DC's, is cheap, fast and efficient. You can really get around town. There is a stop next to our hotel and near the sights we planned to see. The only difference is, it's not air conditioned (it's not hot here - maybe 65 today - and it's underground. But all the windows are open so it is really loud.

We got to our hotel about 10 AM which was four hours before check in. The Romana Residence Milan, what a kind and generous place. I don't know if all Italians are this nice, but these people are. They let us in early. We showered and took a nap (jet lag was hitting hard). We felt so much better.

We had arranged a tour and so went out to find the meeting place - a kind of huge sculpture of a needle and thread at a place called Cadorno Piazza. We met our guide for a tour of The Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci. This turned out to be a two and a half hour event - including the painting, the Santa Maria delle Grazie church next to it, and the Sforzesco castle. It turns out the Duke of Milan, some Sforzo guy, commissioned Da Vinci to paint the Last Supper. We got a lot of background on the Sforzo family - e.g. who poisoned who. I mean really, there were a lot of poisonings but also the occasional stabbing. Who would want to be an aristocrat 500 years ago?

When you see a photograph or web image of The Last Supper, it doesn't really prepare you for the real thing. The actual is on an end wall of a large, long, narrow room - the dining room of a monastery. The perspective portrayed in the painting is the same as the perspective seen from the center of the room. When you stand in the middle of the room, it is like you are at the Last Supper. The immediacy of your apparently shared presence based on the painting's perspective and emotion is unexpected. That's the genius.

There is a painting on the other end of the room by a lesser master - it does not invite you in. The contrast is obvious. Too bad for that guy.

Sforzesco castle is not a palace, it's a fort. It's huge and imposing. Like military parade ground huge. The Duke had some bucks. There is a ceiling that they are in the process of restoring by which was painted by Da Vinci as well. And an original Michelangelo Pieta (one of 4 unique Pietas that he sculpted).

Before continuing to the Duomo cathedral we stopped for some gelato. Milan seems to be really hooked on dessert. You can't walk 50 yards without running into another gelato place. We in the USA have no clue what the real stuff is. All I can say is, wow.

And so onto the Duomo. Again, nothing prepared me for the scope and grand scale of this place. The only thing I'd experienced that was similar was Tiananmen square. Quite amazing.