Day 19: Milan.

Today has been a very cultured day.

This morning I was up at 9am for a long day of sightseeing. I started my day by heading to Milan's main square to see the cathedral and the surrounding buildings. The walk to the square was fairly direct and I passed by the city Opera house on my way (apparently the most famous one in Italy). Before I got to the square I had to walk through a very fancy covered shopping street. The street itself was quite pretty, but when I walked out the other side and saw the cathedral I was slightly taken aback. I can't quite describe how incredible this cathedral is, it looks like its been carved out of stone. Its so intricate though, with so many towers and statues carved into the walls (you really need to goodle image it). Unfortunately, because it was in the 30s today I was wearing a summer dress, which was deemed too short to let me enter the cathedral. Gutted. Oh well, once you've seen one cathedral you've seen them all (at least that's what i'm telling myself anyway). After that slight disspointment I headed over to see Milan's castle. The castle itself wasn't actually too impressive (a lot of it was covered in scaffolding) but the surrounding park was really nice. I actually ended up spending an hour just sitting in the park reading.

After my little break I made my way over to see the Last Supper (which is really the main reason why I came to Milan). On my way there I met a nice Japanese man who was a bit lost, so I showed him where to go. When we got to the Santa Maria monestary I picked up my ticket for my tour, unfortunately my new friend hadn't reserved a ticket so would have to wait til tomorrow as it was already fully booked (thank goodness I booked mine in advance). I was actually over an hour early for my tour so I went to get some lunch first. I found a nice street bar and had a plate of pesto linguini. After lunch I headed back to the Monestary. There was a group of about twenty people waiting to see the painting. After a few minutes we were hearded into the dining room where the painting is. At first you don't notice it as its on the far wall, but when you turn around its quite a surreal moment. Standing there in the room where 600 years ago Da Vinci was workign on his masterpiece, its hard to get your head around. I actually think the Last Supper is more impressive than the Sistine Chapel, theres something about the story behind it (also the fact that you aren't surrounded by hundreds of people packed into a small space). After experiencing Da Vinci's most famous work I went to see some of his sketches and writings on display around the corner. The sketches were really interesting, you could almost see how his mind worked and how he designed things. With the ticket for the exhibition I was also able to go into Milan's biggest art Museum. By the time id finished in both Museums I was a bit overloaded by all the art. By now it was about 5pm so I decided to get the metro (I'm a pro at public transport now) back to the hostel.

So there you have my last day in Milan. Ive really liked my time here, and even though its not the most "magical" city that ive been to, the art here makes a nice change to all the sights I have seen so far. And seeing Da Vinci's Last Supper is pretty damn cool!

Tomorrow its on to Verona. Watch this space.

Lois x