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Tuesday, April 05, 2011

Milan day 2 sightseeing………

 

So after a pretty late night i was awake around 7am, i still had an old itinerary that mark had done for us all and  today we were going to see The Last Supper painting, unfortunately (for me) on the old itinerary it said we were leaving the hotel at 8:15am so i was up showered and at breakfast at 7:30am kami woke and looked at the “new” itinerary and told me to go back to bed as we weren't leaving till 1:30pm!!

We all went our separate ways for a few hours before meeting up at the hotel again at 1:30 to leave for The Last Supper. Kami and i decided to walk into the Duomo area and took a leisurely walk which took us about an hour to get there. Just as we got to the Duomo and were about to sit down at one of the cafe bars i heard the shout of “Simon” i looked to my left and Anders whom we had met in Toronto and Chicago was sitting down having a drink with his friend Johan. We joined them for half an hour chatting about things Roger and catching up on the last 4 months. Johan had purchased one of Victoria's (Robbie Wyckoffs wife) pictures and was excited to get to meet Robbie tonight and asked me various questions about taking pictures and getting autographs backstage.

Victoria has some amazing painting that she does, they are definitely worth checking out on Facebook and online:

http://www.facebook.com/Victoria.Morales.Wyckoff

http://www.vmwdesigns.com/

Mark and Beth called to see where kami and i were, they were just walking to La Scalla to see the opera house, we had walked past earlier, we told them where we were and they came to join us for a drink for half and hour.As they had done a fair bit of walking today they decided to get a taxi back to the hotel, kami and i started to walk back.

 

Half way back i again heard the shout of “Simon” from across the street, “i turned to look” and it was Pat Lennon, one of the backing singers. We crossed over and had a chat for ten minutes before Kip Lennon bumped into the three of us chatting as he was walking back from the  Duomo area. i know i keep saying it but they have to be some of the nicest guys on the planet, always take time to talk and have become good friends over the last few months.

We left the guys to do their own thing and got back to the hotel around 1pm with just enough time to freshen up, have a quick drink and then meet in the lobby to go see The Last Supper. mark had pre booked the tickets about 4 months ago, its one of the most popular sights in Milan and does sell out very quick. Due to the fact that the painting is actually painted onto the wall and not a canvas, the only way you can see it is by coming to Milan! We had a 3pm viewing and had to meet our guide under the large “needle and thread” sculpture at 2:30pm. Again due to me not having my laptop most of the pictures i took are on Kami’s camera and I'll update this entry with pictures when i return home or get the pictures from Kami.

To be actually stood  a mere 5 or 6 feet away from the actual painting was amazing, to think it had been there all those years and had survived and was still in such a good state was fantastic.

you can read more details here about it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Supper_(Leonardo_da_Vinci)

last_supper_05

Its all very controlled when you go to see it, there's no more than 25 people let in the room at a time, you have to go through  a couple of “air lock” doors that stop any outside pollutants getting in and of course your not allowed to take any pictures or video of the actual painting. Mark, Kami and i had some heated discussions afterwards about who exactly is holding the knife behind their back (read about it on the above link) however Kami was again right and i admitted defeat. After seeing the painting your led through the Disney style gift shop which even includes a last Supper colouring book where you can colour in our own version! Due to a couple of communication problems Joe and Kim missed the trip and i know it was the one thing that Kim really wanted to see, i felt real bad for her when we got back to the hotel and even though they tried to get to see it the next day it was sold out but hey Kim its an excuse to have to come back to see it and visit Milan again!

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