We did blind booking 2 years ago and got London, but the flights we were on weren't great. The flight out of Stuttgart left at 7pm, and the flight back to Stuttgart left at 7am. So two whole days of travel were shot. This time we got lucky. Our flight to Milan left Stuttgart at 6:45am, and our flight home left Milan at 8:30pm. So our travel days gave us plenty of time to sight see. That Saturday we flew out, and in 45 minutes we were in Milan. The airport was about an hour drive from the center of the city, but they had a shuttle service that gave you round trip for 15 Euros. We eventually pulled into the city, and checked in at our hotel. The hotel room even had the TV set to greet us!
Once we got settled in our room, we headed back down to the lobby to meet our friends. That first day we had scheduled a 3 hour walking tour that ended with us being able to view The Last Supper painting by DaVinci. The rest of our group wasn't interested, so it was just Shanna & I. We had some time, so we grabbed a bite to eat at the hotel, then strolled into the Duomo district. At this point it was time for our tour, so our friends went their separate ways.
Our tour guide, Alice (pronounced Ali-chey), was very knowledgable. We started at the Cathedral. It took 600 years to build and is the third largest Cathedral in the world, second only to St. Peter's at the Vatican and one in England whose name I can't remember. Inside was BEAUTIFUL. I'm glad we took the guided tour because there were all kinds of tidbits of information we never would have known if we'd just wandered in ourself. For example, for hundreds of years the Cathedral had no front, it was just open. During the construction, a canal was built so that limestone could easily be transported from the caves straight to Cathedral. Because of fresh flowing water, a vibrant fish market sprang up in the area, and the fish vendors would sell fresh fish right at the entrance to the Cathedral...even while the priest was giving Mass! Eventually one of the Archbishops insisted they put a proper front on the Cathedral. In the early 1900's, the town decided to dam the canal, and it is no longer there.
She showed us a small set of tiles that I would have easily stepped over with 4 images of astrological signs. Then she pointed to the roof, where you could see a tiny hole. It was positioned in such a way that at noon (or 1pm during DST months), the light would shine through on to one of the signs. Based on the sign, you know whether it was Winter, Spring, Summer or Fall. Further in she stopped at statue of St. Bartholomew, the patron saint of skin. He was standing there with what looked like a robe draped around his body, with his back facing the wall. The statue used to be out in the open, but it was scaring kids. The reason being, on the back, you realized that wasn't a robe draped around him, it was his skin. He is the patron saint of skin because he was a martyr who was skinned alive.
We left the Cathedral and walked through one of the main shopping streets in Milan. It was built in the 1800's, and at the time, was considered ugly. Over time, people's tastes changed and it is now more highly regarded. There were shops from Louis Vitton, Prada, and other top brand names. I ended up getting some nice leather gloves while we walked through.
On the other side of the street was the grand Milan Opera House. You can only go in on certain days with special reservations, so our tour guide just briefly talked about it. The snow was now really starting to come down, so we took a short break in a local cafe. From there we headed to Sforza Castle. All we did was walk through the main courtyard, but I couldn't believe how big it was. If we'd had more time, I would have liked to have gone through it.
From there we headed to the main attraction of the tour, The Last Supper. Tickets for seeing it are extremely hard to get if you don't buy early in advance. We tried to buy tickets a few weeks prior, and it was already sold out. Thankfully we found this tour company that included tickets with a tour of Milan. DaVinci used a new method to paint this painting. It's not on a canvas, but instead is painted directly on a wall. The previous method of painting on walls required painters to paint fast while the plaster was still wet. It would then dry with the plaster. For this painting, that wasn't going to work...it took DaVinci four years to paint this, finishing in 1498. So he had to come up with a new method that allowed him to paint on a dry surface, and keep coming back to it.
As a result, it didn't take long after he finished before it started to fade. By the 1900's, you could barely make it out. An extensive restoration project began, and from that point forward, the room was strictly climate controlled. One interesting fact about the church it's located in is that during World War II, the church was bombed. Two walls in that room have paintings on them. The two walls that don't were the only ones destroyed. The Last Supper and the other painting survived untouched.
Today when you enter, you have to go through a series of air tight doors. The one in front of you won't open until the one behind you closes. They also limit it to 30 people at a time in the room. It's a large room, so when you enter, you have plenty of space to sit and admire the painting. Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed, so the image below is one I pulled off the internet. Notice in the picture the cut out below Jesus. His feet used to be there, but the door that was below it lead to a kitchen, and the previous kitchen staff decided it'd be more convenient to widen the door. Doing so took out part of the painting. If you ever find yourself in Milan, make sure you see it...you won't regret it.
When we finished, that was the end of the tour, so we hopped on the tram back to the hotel and met up with everyone else. Based on the hotel's recommendation, we cabbed over to a part of town with a great restaurant for dinner. It did not disappoint, the food and wine were outstanding. Shanna & I both had a pasta dish with lobster that was amazing.
The next day the girls found out about a shopping trip that was offered that would take you to the outlets in Switzerland. The guys stayed back and decided to just walk around town, stopping in at the occasional tavern. Unfortunately for the girls (but fortunately for our wallet), the bus was full by the time they got to the pick up point. The girls still ended up shopping, though, because the pick up point was in a big shopping district. While there is amazing history in Milan, shopping is definitely the #1 reason people visit. The locals know it, and there are shops EVERYWHERE.
We eventually met up with the ladies, and just spent the rest of the day casually strolling around. That evening was the AFC and NFC championship games, and we thought we'd found a place to watch it because it was an "American" bar, but no such luck...Milan's soccer team had a big match that night, so we knew we weren't going to find anything. We stayed there anyway, though, and ended up watching part of Milan's game before calling it a night.
The next day everyone split up after breakfast. Shanna & I wanted to walk around the downtown area some more, while the other people in our group wanted to see the part of town near the main train station. As we were walking around, we saw a "Marella" store. I'm still not exactly sure what they sell, other than clothes, but it's the name some good friends of ours gave their daughter after seeing the store in Rome, so we take pictures of the store every time we see it while traveling. So far we've seen it in Malta, Rome, Milan, Sicily, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. We stopped by a watch store, but I just couldn't justify spending that much when my $50 watch works just fine. Some of these watches cost more than a car.
One store we stopped in that was really neat was the Ferrari store. It was 4 stories with all kinds of things. They had little motorized Ferraris for kids, and a Ferrari box car that was 7,200 Euros!! I bought a leather Ferrari cover for my iPad, but unfortunately it was only for the first generation iPad (I have the 3rd gen), so it didn't quite fit. Shanna got some neat Puma shoes with the Ferrari logo on it, though! If you REALLY wanted to spend money in there, you could have purchased parts from actual Ferrari's that raced F1 circuits. A piece of a fender would set you back about 1,000 Euros. But it was a neat store, and we enjoyed walking around in it.
It was getting close to time to head back to the hotel, but we had time to duck into a little Pizzeria that had a DELICIOUS four cheese pizza. After that we headed to the train station and hopped on the bus back to the airport.
It was a fun weekend to get away and just relax. Our next trip is at the end of February when we head up to Hamburg. I was originally going to see a concert up there, but Shanna wanted to go too, so we turned it into a 5 day weekend trip.
To see pictures, click here or any picture above except the Last Supper picture.
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