Bonus Destination: Milano!

There is really nothing exciting that can be said about Thursday - our only accomplishment of the day (other than reading and playing games) was packing up our third floor apartment to move back down to our first floor apartment.  The move is scheduled for Saturday, but we will be with my brother and family in Cinque Terre, so had to pack up early. The Prices had their 2 week trip (to visit us) totally planned before we were 100% sure we would even be able to work out spending the summer here...so when Jeff told me to meet him on Friday at 3:00 at the leaning tower in Pisa, I planned accordingly.   Turns out he meant Saturday! When we discovered the mistake late Thursday night we suddenly had 24 unplanned hours in front of us - our apartment all packed up, Jim already having taken the day off work - so after some quick internet research we were able to add in a trip to Milan, and more importantly to find last-minute tickets to see the Last Supper.  

Prior to this change of events, Rachel had been disappointed that we weren't able to get tickets to see the Last Supper, and that - though only three hours away - we just couldn't fit Milan into our summer schedule.  When I tried to downplay skipping it, she challenged us to name a more famous painting in the world - which we tried but found hard to do.  So we googled. Most top 10 lists of famous paintings have the Last Supper in the top three, only topped by the Mona Lisa (which we saw last year) and Van Gogh's Starry Night...I see another trip to NYC in our future!  


So, off to Milan we went.  On the way we stopped for lunch in the small, medieval town of Soave - a town whose castle we've seen from the major A4 highway many times on trips west but not stopped at.  The major attraction of Soave - besides the castle and the cute winding streets, was a vending machine that not only sells milk, but actually fills your empty bottle with ice cold milk.  We stopped by the machine on the way into town and again on the way out of town...a little piece of heaven.


After all of the cute, quaint, and quiet we have been experiencing, I wasn't really prepared to enter the hustle and bustle of Milan.  Suddenly we were in a really big city - unlike any other we've experienced on this trip so far.  We found our way to our hotel and set off to the Duomo.  We tried to go by metro to get there before it closed, but we got into the metro station and were sent away because there was suddenly a strike and it was closing down.  We walked the 30 minutes to the Duomo instead but did not arrive in time to go inside, but the option to go walk on the rooftop terrace was still open.  We decided to split up - two of us went up to the roof, while the other two decided to clothes shop...after all, it was Milan.  Jim and Rachel thoroughly enjoyed walking on the actual roof of the Duomo and getting up close to the many spires, statues, and other architectural features.

When we met back up (without any new clothes) we went in search of dinner and I'm embarrassed to say that while looking at the various Italian options we turned a corner and  big sign for "Mama Burger" caught our eye.  We convinced ourselves it wasn't overly American of us to have a burger at an entirely Italian burger restaurant, and in fact it was sort of our duty to check out how they have interpreted our national food - we'd be doing them a favor.  I have to say my miniburger (with CHEDDAR cheese), fries, water, and ice cream combo really hit the spot...much more than the veggie burger both girls ordered that was really nothing more than a bunch of cooked spinanch formed into a patty.   The fries were good though.  We went back to the hotel and played our new favorite card game - Clue Suspect - before going to bed.  


After breakfast the next morning we met our tour guide to see the Last Supper.  I had last seen it before the renovation started in 1977 and it was a totally different experience with the 20-year renovation complete.  Going in with a guide to explain what you are seeing and to give history of the time period, of Leoa.rdo and his process, and of the painting itself was really enriching and fascinating to see.  Afterwards, the tour guide took us into the adjoining church which again was more interesting to see with someone telling you what to look at.  As soon as we entered the building one of the monks came up and gave the women in the group with bare shoulders green shawls to cover up with - at least a better solution than what they make you wear for a dress code violation in middle school. 

Now, 24 hours later, it was finally time to go off to meet the Prices in Pisa...