Petersontravels

We are not usually fans of big cities, but this is one of those that you just have to visit at least once.  On this trip we are actually visiting it twice, since the wine tour that got us to come to Italy in the first place departs from Milan.  Details about that later.

We are touring for the first two weeks of this trip with our friends Eric and Karmenn Hanson, from Kingston, WA.  I met Eric years ago while playing an online game called Quake 2 Lithium, and suffice it to say that’s a long story on it’s own, and we’ve been friends ever since.

Kim and I are staying in an AirBNB near the Duomo.  Here is the view from our balcony.

I wish the rest of the place was as nice as the view, but it’s an old building that makes a lot of odd noises, and the place we are staying needs a ton of work.  It’s well located though!

We took a stroll through the Galleria Vittorio Emaneule, which translates to “You don’t have enough money to shop here” in English.  Regardless, it’s a beautiful spot.

We had dinner near the Basilica San Lorenzo Maggiore, which is beautiful church, particularly at night.

This church is one of the oldest in Milan, built between the 4th and 5th centuries, right about the time Nancy Pelosi was born.  Right behind where I took this photo are some Roman columns which were relocated here in the 4th century to form an atrium in front of the Basilica.  The columns were originally part of other Roman buildings from the 2nd or 3rd centuries, most likely from a pagan temple elsewhere within Milan.  Seems like somebody is always stealing shit from the pagans!

The next day we had a booked tour of Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper, located adjacent to the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie.

We had a guided tour which I thought was well worth it.  She droned on about the artistic nature of the piece moreso than the history and how poorly the painting survived the elements since it was painted on plaster.  With Milan being a very humid city, pieces of the painting starting falling off within 20 years.  The painting that exists now is heavily restored, with very little of the original work remaining.  The story of the damage to the painting and the restoration efforts is worth a quick read on Wikipedia:

Last Supper Damage and Restoration

Regardless of how much his original work remains, if any, the fact that Da Vinci himself was working in this very room is pretty special.

Aside from the effects of time, the church was bombed during WWII, but miracuously, one of the few walls that survived is the one with the painting.

Make sure you book your tour well in advance.  When we went to pick up our tickets, a couple in front of us thought they could just walk up and buy tickets, and were told the next available tickets were at least a week from then.

We were ushered into the hermetically sealed room in a group of about 15 people, and we could only stay for 15 minutes, but that’s far better than standing there with 100 people….or 1200 in the case of the human crush at the Mona Lisa in the Louvre!

We also toured the grounds of the Castello Sforzesco, which is a huge park in the middle of Milan attached to the Castle.  It’s free to tour, and well worth it.  At the northwestern end of the park is a mini Arc de Triumphe, called the Arco della Pace (Arch of Peace), which was requested by Napoleon to celebrate his victories during the short lived Italian Republic (1802-1805).  The construction was stopped after he was defeated by the Austrian Empire, but they then completed it with bas-reliefs depicting Napoleon’s defeat.  He who wins the war, writes the history…or in this case finishes the monument!

The last part of the day was spent at the Monumental Cemetary, which I found to be very interesting (Eric loved it so much he went back again today).

This place is HUGE, and could take days to explore.  I’ve never seen so many artistic tombs and monuments in one place.  It was rather mind blowing, and this place is also free.  What’s not the like!

I was shocked with how many trees there were….in a cemetary…many of them quite old!

What does this say about the person buried here??  I wish I knew.  Next time we will take a guided tour.

This one has an art deco look to it.  Are those radio dials on the front, and speakers on top?  Was this some Italian radio DJ?

One last shot of the Duomo at night.  We have tickets for a guided tour when we return to Milan in about 10 days.

Next up, Camogli, along the Italian Riviera.

 

 

Let’s face it, wearing a mask simply sucks.  We were supposed to wear our masks from the second we got into our Uber for the airport, until the second we got out of our Uber in Italy.

Fortunately it wasn’t quite that bad. To begin with, we went to the United Club in San Francisco before our flight to Frankfurt.  While they had signs posted on the tables, and continuously pushed a recording that you need to wear a mask at all times, even while eating and drinking (in between bites and sips), there was no enforcement.  Quite a few people didn’t wear a mask the entire time they were sitting there, and nobody said a thing.  We opted to drink water continuously and mostly went maskless the hour we were there.  By the way, the Club experience has dipped considerably, and the Polaris lounge in the International Terminal was closed, so the Club that was open was jam packed. Nice Covid planning United!

On our United flight to Frankfurt, they stressed several times that masks must be worn at all times (with the same bullshit about in between bites and sips). The truth was, nobody did this, and I saw no enforcement, so I think they are just stating it over and over (and over) to cover their asses.  After the post-takeoff meal, the lights dimmed, and I took my mask off…and didn’t put it back on until after breakfast was served 8 hours later.  Take that Fauci!

I had flight attendants walk by and never a sideways look.  By the way, I’ve read a lot of reviews of how nasty the flight attendants have been as of late, but the crew on our United flight was super nice and upbeat.

Frankfurt airport is a shithole, no way to polish that turd. It’s dilapidated, ugly, souless and soul crushing….just like a German airport is supposed to be.  We had some free Club passes for United’s “Alliance” partners, so we walked about half a mile underground to get to the Lufthansa Club.  The smell of sewage was lovely.  Fun fact, did you know German sewage smells just like American?  We are one big happy world!

The entrance to the Lufthansa lounge is the first place we were asked for the EU Green Pass.  Fortunately our CDC vax passes worked.  Unfortunately, the person at the counter says “we don’t honor United Club passes in Frankfurt”. Well la di fucking da, aren’t we special!  Why have free passes if you can’t use them?  Yet another reason to hate Frankfurt airport, and we literally walked half a mile through “Irish Spring” scented air to get there.

As easy going as United was regarding masks, Lufthansa was the opposite.  On boarding I was told my cloth mask was “not acceptable“, and they handed me a medical grade mask to wear.  It was awful, seeming purposely uncomfortable, but fortunately I had my own medical mask to use.  I think they must have announced how strict their mask usage policy was 10 times during the 1 hour flight, and the flight attendants were watching like maximum security prison guards on high alert.  It’s hard to imagine how Nazi’s evolved from such pleasant people.

At the airport in Milan, there were guys walking around whispering “taxi….taxi?”, as if they were selling meth.  I presume they aren’t licensed drivers, and after a particularly bad experience in Rome, we won’t ever use one of those again.  Fortunately, Uber exists here, so you can’t get ripped off by your steretypical Italian taxi driver since you know the rate in advance and pay with your credit card.  The experience was excellent, so consider that if you visit MIlan.  I will be posting about Milan shortly!