Italy Day Uno

We arrived at the Milan airport in the morning and went to our hotel-- The Best Hotel. Seriously, that was the name of it. We ate lunch at a little sandwich shop-not too great, but not horrible.

Then we went to a random church in a random neighborhood to see daVinci's Last Supper.

The Last Supper is in the Santa Maria delle Grazie church’s refectory, or dining hall. The painting is actually a fresco, which means the color was mixed with plaster and painted onto the wall. Frescos are not known for their longevity, so the Last Supper is fading and has had its share of hard knocks in life. First, the monks cooked in there, and the steam and other kitchen crud gunked up the painting. Then someone had the genius idea to cut a door in the wall, removing Jesus’s feet (I wonder if that moron went to heaven), finally the building was hit by a bomb in World War II. Fortunately, the church leadership knew they were in the red zone, so as a precaution, they blocked the wall with sandbags. The church was severely damaged, but the Last Supper made it with some damage. The Last Supper has gone through several restorations, but it was still incredible! It was HUGE! Way bigger than I thought it would be, and it was so awesome to see Leonardo's depiction of Jesus's last supper with his disciples.

The church allows only a few people at a time into the room to see the fresco because the humidity from bodies decays it. The room also contained another fresco, Crucifixion, which was equally beautiful, and I have no idea why it's not famous.

Photos were, understandably, forbidden.

We noticed that it looked like rain that day, and the forecast also predicted rain, but this forecast did not come from Meterologists Matt Laubhaun, Ron Roberts or Gary England, so we didn't trust it completely. On any account, we wanted to be prepared for our trip, so we bought a pretty pink umbrella from a street beggar. And for the rest of the day, we sang Under My Umbrella by Rhianna. And now for the rest of your day, you will sing it too!

We then went to Milan's Duomo. Holy cow! Unbelievable!

So beautiful and so ornate. Every inch of it was covered with a carving.

The inside was just as ornate and had dozens of beautiful stained glass windows.

We couldn't believe our eyes, and to know this was made without cranes, back hoes, power tools, safety harnesses, and OSHA made it even more impressive. We climbed the stairs to the top (what a workout!) and enjoyed views of Milan.

We had gellato when we got down.

Milan is a big bustling city. The public transportation system there was very good. The feel of it reminded me a lot of DC.

There isn’t a lot to see or do there, unless you’re really into fashion. If I were rich, I would be really into it, but I’m not rich, so it wasn’t all that interesting to me. Right next to the Duomo was the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele. It had all the expensive shops, so we made a brief sashay through the galleria and decided that if I went into one of the stores, I would get the Pretty Woman treatment.

Since we got very little sleep on the plane, we went to bed at 6:30 p.m. Lame, yes, but we were so tired.