Arrivederci Milano (Day 41 - GToE)

La Scala

Okay, it's official. I really do not like Milan. Twice I've been here and twice it just seems like a crowded, dirty, overpriced city. By dirty, I mean, kind of gross. I'm talking rubbish on the streets, cigarette butts everywhere, overflowing bins, and people not cleaning up after their dogs. Mind where you step. Something else I don't like is that there are people selling crap everywhere, but they don't take no for an answer. They practically follow you down the street trying to sell their garbage. I had to tell one guy off for touching me. I'm not a fan being touched by perfect strangers on the streets selling me crap. If you like shopping, then by all means, come to Milan.  All in all, I probably could have skipped coming here again except for three things: Da Vinci, Chagall, and Van Gogh.

I wanted to try to get into see a Van Gogh exhibition that's here for a few months and the ticket office is located near the Duomo and opens at 9:30am. This morning, I walked over toward the Duomo and got there ridiculously early (8:30). The Duomo actually opens at 7:00am, so I decided to take a quick run through the cathedral. Personally, I think it's kind of an ugly church inside, but it killed some time meandering through it. Then I walked through the Galleria (one of the world's oldest shopping malls) and over past La Scala (the world famous opera house) for a few photos. By then it was 8:50...still kind of early, but I went over to the ticket office and there was already a short queue. I hopped into the queue and waited to see if I could get into the Van Gogh exhibit. Well, it took an hour, but I got in. By 10am, I was roaming through the salons and looking at more of Van Gogh's artwork. It's interesting because some of the artwork was on loan from museums that I had already visited earlier (The Orsay, The Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam, etc.). Now I got a chance to see these works as well.

After touring the exhibition, I meandered my way up Via Dante (a major avenue) to meet my tour group at the Sforza Castle. There were 16 of us on this tour which looked at the outside of the castle. We didn't actually go into the castle, which is now being used for 3 different museums. We then made our way to the refectory of the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie where Da Vinci's 15th century mural of L'Ultima Cena (The Last Supper) is located. There are several interesting things about this painting. One, it's in horrible condition. It was in horrible condition 8 years ago too. In fact, it's been in horrible condition since approximately 20 years after Da Vinci painted it because he did not use the correct materials for painting on a wall. Two, in 1652, a doorway was cut through the (then unrecognizable) painting, and later bricked up; this can still be seen as the irregular arch shaped structure near the center base of the painting. Three, the monastery was heavily bombed during World War II and the only reason why the painting still exists was due to a protective structure placed in front of the painting. But it is still worth the price of admission. Sad that it's so badly deteriorated.

After touring through another church recommended by my awesome tour guide and then grabbing a quick bite to eat, I made my way back to the Piazza del Duomo. You see while I was waiting to see the Van Gogh exhibition this morning, I noticed that in the same building, a Marc Chagall retrospective was also going on. Well, I do love me some Marc Chagall. So I went back to the Royal Palace to see if I could get into the Chagall exhibition. The line was insanely long, but due to some Italian craziness that involved a misunderstanding, I managed to get into the exhibition without standing in line. It was pretty amazing. The retrospective covered Chagall's art from 1908 to 1985 and had some of his most famous works on loan from various museums around the world. Chagall certainly loved his goats, cows, and Wandering Jews. 

That's the sum total of my day. Not terribly exciting, but I suppose it could have been worse. I'm glad I saw the three things that I saw today, but I'm also glad that I'm not spending much more time here in Milan. Tomorrow, it's onto one of my favorite cities: Venice!

There aren't many pictures today because no photos were allowed at any of the venues, but feel free to check out my limited Day 41 photos on my GToE photo site.