It's been a long while since I've had a chance to write, so I'll try to sum up as best I can. (I know I'm not very good at keeping it short and sweet.)
Milan - the neverending day (June 28)
We woke up at 2:30 a.m. to walk to the shuttle by 3 a.m. at Victoria Station, London. We got to London Luton (reminder that it's way the heck out of London) and got onto our 6:30 flight to Milan. Arriving in Milan we checked into our hostel and wandered around until our tour.
On our tour we went to alla Scala Opera House (the most famous in the world). It has amazing accoustics, especially if you sit in the top boxes (the chicken boxes). All the most important musicians and composers have to succeed at Il Teatro Alla Scala to advance their careers. Rossini, Toscanini, Boccini, Giuseppi Verdi, and Salieri (competitor of Mozart) were there.
We then went to the Duomo (the 3rd largest cathedral after St. Peter's Basilica in Rome and another one I can't rememeber right now. The ceiling is painted to look as if it has been intricatelly carved like lattice. During WWII, they actually had time to take the stained glass windows out and move them so that it was able to be repaired after the bombings.
We also went through the Galleria Vittorio Emanuelle which was ful of expensive fashion stores. Milan really is a major fashion center for the world.
We wandered through the Sforza Castle and gardens. It was beautiful, but Jen and and I were definitely fading at this point in the day(she was still jet-lagged).
The last stop was to see Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper." This was the reason for going on the tour. I tried to individually book for tickets, but who knew that it would be sold out 1 1/2 months in advance! Anyhow, you are only allowed to be in the room for 15 minutes in a group of no more than 25. It was a bit of a miracle because the building was bombed in WWII and the wall the painting was on didn't get hit.
It was incredible! You could see it best by standing in the middle of the room. Da Vinci was on the cutting edge of the Renaissance style of painting by trying to make the bodies more anatomically correct. He visited morgues to study the human body. "The Last Supper" is amazing because every face is like it's own portrait. Of course, it's supposed to be the moment after Jesus tells his disciples that one of them will betray him. Interestingly, Judas is painted in a darker light to show that he is the betrayer. There is also a hand holding a knife, but you can't see whose hand it is...a mystery. You can really see the emotion in each of the disciples. Seeing this painting doesn't really describe it. It was an experience. It was an awe at the ingenuity and creative genious of Da Vinci. A photo, film, or book can't capture it. You have to stand in the room and soak it in.
That night we went to alla Scala to see Leonard Berstein's opera Candide based off of the book by Voltaire. We sat up in the chicken boxes in the front row. The orchestra was incredible as were the singers and dancers. It was a slightly over the top production, and the point of the story was long in coming. (We must accept that not all things that happen are for the best. People really have bad in them. You just have to do your best and "grow your garden." - Horribly condensed main idea) However, it was an amazing experience.
Finally, we got back to our hostel and into bed about 1:30 a.m. Killer!
-Stacy
Milan - the neverending day (June 28)
We woke up at 2:30 a.m. to walk to the shuttle by 3 a.m. at Victoria Station, London. We got to London Luton (reminder that it's way the heck out of London) and got onto our 6:30 flight to Milan. Arriving in Milan we checked into our hostel and wandered around until our tour.
On our tour we went to alla Scala Opera House (the most famous in the world). It has amazing accoustics, especially if you sit in the top boxes (the chicken boxes). All the most important musicians and composers have to succeed at Il Teatro Alla Scala to advance their careers. Rossini, Toscanini, Boccini, Giuseppi Verdi, and Salieri (competitor of Mozart) were there.
We then went to the Duomo (the 3rd largest cathedral after St. Peter's Basilica in Rome and another one I can't rememeber right now. The ceiling is painted to look as if it has been intricatelly carved like lattice. During WWII, they actually had time to take the stained glass windows out and move them so that it was able to be repaired after the bombings.
We also went through the Galleria Vittorio Emanuelle which was ful of expensive fashion stores. Milan really is a major fashion center for the world.
We wandered through the Sforza Castle and gardens. It was beautiful, but Jen and and I were definitely fading at this point in the day(she was still jet-lagged).
The last stop was to see Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper." This was the reason for going on the tour. I tried to individually book for tickets, but who knew that it would be sold out 1 1/2 months in advance! Anyhow, you are only allowed to be in the room for 15 minutes in a group of no more than 25. It was a bit of a miracle because the building was bombed in WWII and the wall the painting was on didn't get hit.
It was incredible! You could see it best by standing in the middle of the room. Da Vinci was on the cutting edge of the Renaissance style of painting by trying to make the bodies more anatomically correct. He visited morgues to study the human body. "The Last Supper" is amazing because every face is like it's own portrait. Of course, it's supposed to be the moment after Jesus tells his disciples that one of them will betray him. Interestingly, Judas is painted in a darker light to show that he is the betrayer. There is also a hand holding a knife, but you can't see whose hand it is...a mystery. You can really see the emotion in each of the disciples. Seeing this painting doesn't really describe it. It was an experience. It was an awe at the ingenuity and creative genious of Da Vinci. A photo, film, or book can't capture it. You have to stand in the room and soak it in.
That night we went to alla Scala to see Leonard Berstein's opera Candide based off of the book by Voltaire. We sat up in the chicken boxes in the front row. The orchestra was incredible as were the singers and dancers. It was a slightly over the top production, and the point of the story was long in coming. (We must accept that not all things that happen are for the best. People really have bad in them. You just have to do your best and "grow your garden." - Horribly condensed main idea) However, it was an amazing experience.
Finally, we got back to our hostel and into bed about 1:30 a.m. Killer!
-Stacy
1 comment:
GREAT write-up! Having been to many of these places, I'm totally enjoying your descriptions and observations. I'm re-living past trips through you guys :)
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