My last supper in Italy (for 2021)

It’s only taken me about six visits to the city of Milan to finally see the most magnificent sight there is to see. I woke up early this morning to hop on board a train to the center of Milan. A few weeks ago, I had booked a tour for today, so I was eager to actually go on the tour. The guide, Barbara, was wonderful. She wasn’t pushy, she had lots of information, and seemed to know more than just what was on the tour as she answered questions that people asked.

First up was the tour of the Duomo. I had been inside once, but didn’t spend too much time really researching anything. This time, Barbara fully explained the stained glass widows, and the history of the church. It took about 600 years to build and had different styles as the years passed. Outside stayed gothic, but inside there are medieval, baroque, and renaissance influences. While most of Milan was bombed out in 1943 while they were still working with the Nazis, the Duomo suffered only collateral damage and wasn’t directly attacked at the request of the Pope. I also learned that the Duomo is the third largest Catholic church (I’m guessing Barbara meant in Italy). She also said the stained glass windows near the Altar were the largest in the world, and they are massive. One statue that caught my eye was of St. Bartholomew. He was one of Jesus’s disciples, and when he got to Rome to spread the word of Christianity, he was arrested. Christianity was illegal to talk about or practice then (hence the Romans killing Jesus), so Bartholomew was sentenced to death. His death was much more horrid, as his skin was ripped from his body, while he was alive. The sculpture, created by one of Leonardo Da Vinci’s students, shows all of the anatomy inside the human body, like veins and muscles, with what looks like a sash wrapped around him. When you examine the sash, you can see hands, feet, and a head. The sash is actually supposed to be Bartholomew’s skin. The detail was so perfect.

We then left the Duomo and headed out on a walk of the city, stopping at the Sforza Castle. This was a fort built in the 1300s, and added to over the years. By the time the Sforzas came to power, it was much bigger than when the Visconti family first started building. Eventually, Da Vinci would move into the area and serve as an advisor to the family, designing some of the courtyards for the Sforza family.

Finally, Barbara led us to the Santa Maria Delle Grazia church. It’s a smaller church, but it was the Sforzas church, and home to an order of Monks that had a lot of influence in Rome with the Pope. At that time, the church had as much power as local Kings and Dukes. The monks spent three meals a day eating in the mess hall of the church’s rectory. When Da Vinci moved to town, he was commissioned to decorate that mess hall. The dining hall is now home to what many consider Da Vinci’s greatest work of art, “The Last Supper.” It’s a very big and magnificent work of art, and it has been studied, praised and scrutinized for centuries. But its influence on techniques in the art world and the symbolism in the painting are undeniable. It was the second major work of Da Vinci’s that I’ve seen, and by far the more impressive of the two. The other was the “Mona Lisa.”

After heading back to the hotel to pack, I took a quick trip to the Sheraton, a neighboring hotel, and had my last supper in Italy for 2021. I had a salad, some penne Bolognese, and a pizza, which I saved half of for the morning. I’ve bought all of my souvenirs, packed my bags, and checked into my flight. I walked another 20,000 steps today, but I’m not nearly as tired, probably because I didn’t spend six hours or more on trains. Tomorrow, I have to be at the airport early to drop my bag and make it through security. I asked a check in agent, and she said I should get there at least three hours early. No TSA Pre check here, so I won’t be skipping any security lines.