But there IS a tomorrow...
OK. My plan for the day was to take it easy and let someone else do the work. There is a bus tour that hits the three big spots, including admission to see da Vinci's Last Supper. They can cart me around, show me what I need to see, and I can take on whatever is left in the afternoon. Tour starts at 9:30 (you're already figuring this out, aren't you), I get up at, say 7:30 or eight, I'm good to go.
Well, sleep comes easily after a day without, but the 'bod is still hanging on to PST. I wake up (very wake) at 4 am, and slowly work my way back to sleep. Only to wake at 9:15. Oh well. So much for the tour, which basically means no Last Supper, as you need reservations to see that.
I took my time, showered, washing my unmentionables along the way, then hopped out of the shower into the large pool of water covering pretty much the entire floor. I suspect that it drains into the room Paul stayed in. Whatever; I'm outa the room, and after a complementary cappuchino from the guy at the desk (who hadn't seen my room yet), it was off to hit the town.
Managed to get through a fair bit, even with a lot of things shut down. First, the duomo, while not shut down, didn't look like the picture linked to on the previous post. That is someone else's vacation memory. The entire fron side is behind scaffolding for maintenance, and the sky is quite heavily overcast in real life. No biggy. I head over to the duomo museum, to find it closed for maintenance as well. I begin to fear this is going to be like going to Disneyland in the off season. But it isn't. The duomo itself is open, and as impressive as any I've seen elsewhere. Bonus of it being Sunday is that mass was in session, with all the assosiated pomp and ceremony, although this meant areas of the cathedral were off-limits for touristing. As I have nothing to confess, I couldn't wrangle my way back to where the business of soul saving goes on.
The cool part was the roof-they let you climb up there (for a fee, so I guess it is something like Disneyland) and wander about all the spires up there. Every inch carved with the myriad themes of Christianity (more on that later).
I then popped over to the Scala opera house and got a wee look around, but , being siesta time, the museum there was closed for a couple of hours. Thought about checking out a ticket for the show; might still do that after logging out.
Next, decided to head over to the Sforza Castle, and along the way I popped into the Brera Museum for, oh, a couple of hours. Loads of old Italian art here to make you wonder what the heck is the attraction of Christianity? I mean, this is great art and all, but you start getting depressed seeing saint after saint being martyred in various interesting ways. Every one of 'em with a 'oh, whatever' expression. Arrows, clubs, you name it, they offed 'em real good in the old days. And with not one image of heaven actually being a happy place (looked rather morose, sort of like a root-cause-analysis meeting), who would actually want saint-hood?
My favourite had to be Battista's S Pietro Martire. I call it "Hatchet in Head. That's Gonna Sting". Sorry, no pics of that happiness. Similar in feeling to that of St Sebastian, or another one I can't find a pic for, St Erasmo getting his guts yanked out by a guy with a winch.
I can only take a couple of hours of that happiness, then it was off to the Sforzi Castle. Big old medievel thing, but chock full of more art. And historical archeological stuff, as well. Egyptian stuff, prehistoric stuff. Lotsa stuff.
That took a a while as well, then I figured to at least give a shot at the Last Supper. Walked over to the church to get in line for no-shows, but it became pretty obvious that no luck was to be had there. I didn't want to waste the day sitting around for that, so I opted to hit the Leo da Vinci museum of science and technology. That was more up my alley. Actual engineering stuff. Trains. Planes. Guns and loud things. Took my mind off of getting a hatchet in the head, let me tell you. Although, I hadn't eaten all day, so I was starting to feel like my guts were being winched out. I hoofed it back towards the duomo, and stopped into a cafe for some deep-fried things. Big tater tots, but with fish and other stuff in 'em. Yum. Then here for a quick (?) email update, and I'm off for gelato #2.
Tomorrow? Not sure yet. Hotel check out, then maybe north to Como, or south to Bergamo. Stay tuned.
Well, sleep comes easily after a day without, but the 'bod is still hanging on to PST. I wake up (very wake) at 4 am, and slowly work my way back to sleep. Only to wake at 9:15. Oh well. So much for the tour, which basically means no Last Supper, as you need reservations to see that.
I took my time, showered, washing my unmentionables along the way, then hopped out of the shower into the large pool of water covering pretty much the entire floor. I suspect that it drains into the room Paul stayed in. Whatever; I'm outa the room, and after a complementary cappuchino from the guy at the desk (who hadn't seen my room yet), it was off to hit the town.
Managed to get through a fair bit, even with a lot of things shut down. First, the duomo, while not shut down, didn't look like the picture linked to on the previous post. That is someone else's vacation memory. The entire fron side is behind scaffolding for maintenance, and the sky is quite heavily overcast in real life. No biggy. I head over to the duomo museum, to find it closed for maintenance as well. I begin to fear this is going to be like going to Disneyland in the off season. But it isn't. The duomo itself is open, and as impressive as any I've seen elsewhere. Bonus of it being Sunday is that mass was in session, with all the assosiated pomp and ceremony, although this meant areas of the cathedral were off-limits for touristing. As I have nothing to confess, I couldn't wrangle my way back to where the business of soul saving goes on.
The cool part was the roof-they let you climb up there (for a fee, so I guess it is something like Disneyland) and wander about all the spires up there. Every inch carved with the myriad themes of Christianity (more on that later).
I then popped over to the Scala opera house and got a wee look around, but , being siesta time, the museum there was closed for a couple of hours. Thought about checking out a ticket for the show; might still do that after logging out.
Next, decided to head over to the Sforza Castle, and along the way I popped into the Brera Museum for, oh, a couple of hours. Loads of old Italian art here to make you wonder what the heck is the attraction of Christianity? I mean, this is great art and all, but you start getting depressed seeing saint after saint being martyred in various interesting ways. Every one of 'em with a 'oh, whatever' expression. Arrows, clubs, you name it, they offed 'em real good in the old days. And with not one image of heaven actually being a happy place (looked rather morose, sort of like a root-cause-analysis meeting), who would actually want saint-hood?
My favourite had to be Battista's S Pietro Martire. I call it "Hatchet in Head. That's Gonna Sting". Sorry, no pics of that happiness. Similar in feeling to that of St Sebastian, or another one I can't find a pic for, St Erasmo getting his guts yanked out by a guy with a winch.
I can only take a couple of hours of that happiness, then it was off to the Sforzi Castle. Big old medievel thing, but chock full of more art. And historical archeological stuff, as well. Egyptian stuff, prehistoric stuff. Lotsa stuff.
That took a a while as well, then I figured to at least give a shot at the Last Supper. Walked over to the church to get in line for no-shows, but it became pretty obvious that no luck was to be had there. I didn't want to waste the day sitting around for that, so I opted to hit the Leo da Vinci museum of science and technology. That was more up my alley. Actual engineering stuff. Trains. Planes. Guns and loud things. Took my mind off of getting a hatchet in the head, let me tell you. Although, I hadn't eaten all day, so I was starting to feel like my guts were being winched out. I hoofed it back towards the duomo, and stopped into a cafe for some deep-fried things. Big tater tots, but with fish and other stuff in 'em. Yum. Then here for a quick (?) email update, and I'm off for gelato #2.
Tomorrow? Not sure yet. Hotel check out, then maybe north to Como, or south to Bergamo. Stay tuned.
posted by Kevin Batycki at
10:14 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home