Day 9 Milan

All through the night I thought it was pouring. There was what seemed like a constant drumming on the roof and I totally forgot that we were on the first floor and there were several floors above us so it would have been impossible. When John woke up, he turned off the aircon and suddenly there was peace, As it happened, it was raining a little overnight but we came on this trip armed with waterproofs and umbrellas so the rain hardly mattered.

The first job of the day was to find somewhere to get breakfast and John had seen a likely place around the corner. We were soon ordering “Duo cappuccino et duo tostare”. Actually we got coffee and toasted ham and cheese sandwich but that was pretty good anyway. Then priority 2 was to walk past a place we had found to be strongly recommended for dinner and make a booking.

From here the plan was to follow a tourist trail we had downloaded at home, which began at the Duomo.  As we walked to our destination we got distracted by a lumbering old basilica. The door was ajar and we thought we might as well have a peek inside. It turned out to be a private gallery dedicated to the work of some of the most graphic horse statues to be found around the city. In the 1970s, someone donated the basilica building to this sculptor to be used as his workshop and home. When he died, he left it to the city of Milan as a place for the exhibition of the work of up and coming young artists. The gallery was in the care of several retired women who loved art and one of them assisted us with a guided tour. She was a most interesting person. She was born into a pretty toff family and enjoyed all sorts of privileges and travels as she grew up the daughter of a diplomat, posted to Turkey and other places. As an adult she made her love of travel into a career and was one of the first to take tours into pioneering partsof the world. She took the first tour into china once Mao Tse Tung opened up the country to tourism. She particularly pointed out some off thr regular tourist route places we might like to see. Sometimes it’s the diversions to the plan that make our travels memorable.

Johnny led us through a winding trail of back streets to the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, which was built by a rich nobleman to house his 30,000 manuscripts. We walked past the church Santa Maria Presso di San Satiro, which though small has been painted with tromp lóeil to give the impression of greater internal size.

As e moved on to the next sight, we found TREASURE. Peck has to be Ginny’s idea of heaven. This was food lifted to the status of high art. Each type of food had its own area within the shop and each offered an extravagant display. In the cellar there were bottles of wine that cost many thousands of dollars. We tossed around the idea of having coffee and cake there but really we had only finished breakfast less than an hour ago. We tried to be good but 10 minutes later as we passed a nindblowing gelati and coffee shop, our resolve collapsed and we were soon tucking into tubs of ice cream.

The next stop was the royal Palace of Milan which also housed the Duomo museum. As we bought tickets for the duomo tour for tomorrow, and the tickets gave us access to the museum within the same 24 hour period, we went through. The palace was home to a string of notable rulers up until 1920, when it became a public building. It was bombed in 1943 but has since been restored. There were hundreds of statues inside. These came from the Duomo and had been removed to be restored, or else they were studies for the ststues that finally did adorn the cathedral. There were just TOO many to really appreciate. After the first 100 or so all we could do was to sweep past them.

The next stop was La Scala and the museum. The ticket let us go up to the third level to see inside the theatre from one of the boxes. This was perfect for me as one of the things that truly releases my violent instincts is opera. No part of me understands it and it would have been a complete waste of money to get tickets for a performance. This way I could see the building, which was the thing that most interested me. We were lucky enough to catch a huge exhibition of many of the costumes worn by Maria Callas.

Bt the end of the tour around La Scala we were both a bit footsore and though not really hungry we thought it best to get something and take it back to the apartment. For me it was a chicken salad and for Johnny a pannini. Perfect.

The meal at La Fettunta was very nice. I had a ragout tagliatelle and Johnny had a regina pizza. We finished off with a shared dessert of pear and chocolate tart and a coffee. The place was really full by the time we finished our meal. Just as well we took the precaution of booking.
There were lots more photos to upload but the internet here is v unreliable so will have to wait till I can get a better connection, maybe at the next digs.