Twenty years ago, on December 1st, I boarded a train in Rome, connected via Milan, and spent the night on a couchette headed to Zurich. I had one or two cracked ribs, was on antibiotics for a respiratory infection, and my left side was still covered in bruises from the Ethiopian Isuzu crash. But I was recovering after the aid of an Italian doctor, and I had just enough energy to leave the Milan train platform to walk outside to see the grand hall of the station, and then walked out front to glance around.
The area in front of the Milan train station at night didn’t tell me much about Milan, and after 11 months of local transport travel, I was uninspired by my quick glance around. Plus, I was looking forward to my trip on the Bernina Express through the Alps. I wasn’t really there for Milan.
Saturday afternoon I finally left the train station, checked into a nearby Best Western (chosen for being two blocks from the airport bus), and headed onto the Milan metro to go to the meeting point for a walking tour with a group called City Wonders. https://citywonders.com/milan-tours/last-supper-tours
Three hours of walking around tourist attractions was plenty, but worth it for the 15-minute viewing of The Last Supper…which was pretty weird once I thought about it. A bunch of Jesus guys all dressed in contemporary styles of the time in which Da Vinci painted it. But okay, it’s still an amazing painting with so many stories stuffed into a single image. Like a comic.
What a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon. I’m so glad I finally got out of the Milan train station.
1 comment:
I'd like to see Milan.
Yes, I can see The Last Supper as a comic motif. Which makes you wonder what Leonardo would think of comic books.
And I've had broken ribs. Very unpleasant.
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