Day 1 Milan

We arrived safely in Milan after an uneventful flight from New York.  We were happy we arrived 30 minutes early, but we soon found out we had our first glitch.  Hertz wanted to give us a Fiat Skoda van instead of the minivan we booked.  After going around and around with the Hertz agent who, spoke very little English, we finally got our minivan.

We packed light as usual.

The car thankfully we did not get.  Bill called it the bakery delivery truck

Our first stop, after dropping off the car at our hotel, was La Scala Opera House.  We were impressed with the intimate size and beauty of the opera house.  We were a little disappointed that we hadn't booked tickets, but since the performance was Verdi's Falstaff and not Budweiser, we probably made the right decision.

We walked to our next stop which was San Ambrogio Basilica.  It was a lovely basilica, but we were a little unnerved when we saw the skeletal body of St. Ambrose in the crypt.

We had tickets to see The Last Supper at 7:15.  We decided to walk over to the Santa Maria delle Grazie to see if we could get earlier tickets.  No luck, they were all sold out.

 

Santa Maria della Grazia

Since we had time kill, we walked back to see a little church that had peaked our interest on our way.  We were so glad we did.  This church was a real gem, plain on the outside, but surprisingly beautiful on the inside.





























 We still had about 2 hours before our reservations for the Last Supper.   We found a little cafe close and decided to go have a glass of wine and a snack.  The owner, Gina, made up some special appetizers for us.  She just kept bringing out the food.  She spoke very little English but we were able to make ourselves understood.  She even demonstrated what part of the pig the prosciutto ham came from.

 We then went to our reserved viewing of The Last Supper.  It has been beautifully preserved and we were all very glad we got to see it.  Lisa was not happy when she found out NO PICTURES. We walked back to our hotel and worked on the blog.  Goodnight for now.  We are all exhausted.