Day 11: Milano

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

This morning we took a guided 2.5 hour walking tour through a nearby neighborhood.  I scheduled the tour a couple of weeks earlier, because it included a viewing of The Last Supper, by Leonardo da Vinci.  The tickets for that painting alone normally must be reserved a couple of months in advance, and I missed that chance.  The next best thing is to sign up with a guided tour, for a little more money, but they include tickets for the viewing, and also include other highlights, which in this case were a couple of other churches, and the Roman ruins in the center of Milan, pictured below:

The following three photos were from one of the churches on the guided tour.  Every wall and the entire ceiling were covered in paintings:

From the same church is a painting of the last supper, but this is not the one by Leonardo da Vinci:

This is a photo of a photo of The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci.  The actual painting is in a special climate controlled room, to which only 30 people are admitted at a time, for 15 minute periods, and photography is not permitted.  However, there is this photo on the way out, to enable viewers of the real thing to have something to photograph:

Seen while wandering the streets later were several bike-sharing stations, run by the city of Milan.  We saw them getting a lot of use during the morning and evening rush hours.

A tiny car:

A pedicab:

These kinds of toilets are still in several places.  Potentially very challenging...

Here's a photo of the piazza in front of the Duomo in Milan:

And a couple photos of the Duomo, an incredibly beautiful place:

Jenae, inside the nearby shopping galleria:

In the center, our hotel, surrounded by large cobblestone streets and rails for the street cars:

Another photo of the Duomo at night.  Our plan is to visit tomorrow morning, before the hordes of tourists.