Seeing Da Vinci’s Last Supper

We boarded the morning train in Zermatt and, after two train changes, and a lengthy tunnel (the Simplon Tunnel), soon found ourselves en route to Italy (with Xander completing the school homework that he had been sent for the trip). However as we crossed the border and arrived at Domodossola, we had a number of very serious Italian Police officers board the train asking for passports. We ensured that our passports were ready for inspection, however only a few persons on the train got theirs checked and we were soon on the way again and a short time later arrived at Milano Centrale.

Milano Centrale is a large train station and after some navigating we managed to find the luggage storage area where we wanted to store our luggage before travelling onwards later that afternoon. However, as the lines to the storage centre in the station went on forever we did a quick google search and instead for a nearby luggage storage through Bounce Luggage Storage which was located inside “The Street Bar” and was only 5 min from the station with friendly staff and great coffees.

Now that our bags were stored we jumped on the Metro and travelled to the Piazza del Duomo where we were offered great views of the Duomo Cathedral and which also marks the entrance to Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. We unfortunately hadn’t booked a time to enter the Duomo (or ride the lift to the top) and all times slots until later that evening were booked out so we settled by just wandering the square and seeing the impressive cathedral from outside.

We walked a small distance away from the square and found a small restaurant where Suz and I both had a classic local dish of Risotto Milanese, a saffron-infused risotto, which was great whilst sampling some of the local beers. Xander enjoyed a great Pizza and had left a small crust on his plate which unfortunately was cleared before he had finished it as it appeared that he had finished his meal, this caused Xander to be upset for a short time however he quickly got over it (although he was still talking about this later on whilst in Varenna which he covered in our video).

After lunch we wandered around inside Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, a very luxurious shopping arcade housed inside glass-vaulted arcades. The arcade contains different mosaic designs on the floor with one of them showing a mosaic bull on the floor. And because it’s tradition to spin three times whilst placing your heel on the bull (and supposedly bring you good luck) both Xander and Eloise had a turn each.

Not far from the arcade is the Piazza della Scala which features a monument to Leonardo Da Vinci and the opera house, the Teatro alla Scala which we walked past but were unable to enter to see on the day.

Upon returning to Milan after spending a few days in the Lake Como area we made our way to the Santa Maria delle Grazie which is the home to Da Vinci’s The Last Supper. This museum, the Museo del Cenacolo Vinciano, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, houses the famous Last Supper painting representing the scene of the Last Supper of Jesus with the Twelve Apostles, a mural painted by Leonardo da Vinci between 1495–1498. Tickets to see the famous painting isn’t expensive but they are hard to get and you have to book them months ahead of time where you select a time slot of 15minutes to view the mural. Luckily we had booked our tickets through the official website and had no problems entering to admire Da Vinci’s work.  

Not long after we sat down for some lunch, explored the Piazza del Duomo and Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II once again (where Eloise ensured she did her spins on the bull again) and then made our way to Milano Centrale for our fast train to Rome. 

Milan was a short stopover for us and we felt that we covered most of what we wanted to see, unfortunately we didn’t get the chance to enter the Duomo but that’s what happens sometimes when travelling, can’t fit everything in.