we did it!

So the two things I was most nervous about on the this trip were the plane ride over (could the kids handle it) and taking the kids to Milan by myself (could I handle it). Jon was busy all day today with his conference and I had planned to take the kids on the hour train ride to a place I had never been.

It worked out great.

We loved the train ride and even sat by a girl and her grandmother from Canada who were so sweet to the kids. We then took the metro to the Duomo. What an impressive sight. It is a disorganized group of thousands of spires - all with random statues and gargoyles on top. We climbed the stairs to the roof and walked around.

Something that we all thought was cool (and expensive) were the bathrooms in the metro station. You had to put a euro into the slot and then the doors opened for a few seconds and you could go use the stall. They were actually very clean.

After the Duomo, we walked over to the Galleria Emanuel (a huge, beautiful shopping center). Although the shopping was over our budget, we did take advantage of the tradition of the bull. In the middle of the floor is a mosaic of a bull. The legend is that if you spin your foot around on the part of the bull that makes it a bull, you will have good luck. Matthew was the only one up for the challenge.

The kids were very supportive for our next stop, which was the Teatra di La Scala - or La Scala Opera House. This is the most famous opera house in the world and has been around for ages. We went into the museum for a few minutes. You cannot take pictures inside, so I will try to explain what we saw. They let you peek into the theatre, which is amazing. The entire sides and back of the theatre are box seating. It is beautiful. They were setting up for a ballet that night. In the museum, we saw costumes from operas, musical instruments (including Liszt's piano) and many artifacts and librettos. Even the kids thought it was pretty cool.

Our final destination was to see The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci. I was really looking foward to this since I worked so hard to get tickets months ago. The background of the painting is that the church commissioned Leonardo to paint the scene of the Last Supper in the dining hall of the monks at the church. Leonardo, always thinking outside the box, decided to try a new method of painting where you paint on a dry fresco. Although his method was beautiful, it also began decaying almost immediately. There has been much restoration, but it is still very faded. There is a portion near the Savior's feet where the church decided they needed a bigger door. They just cut right into that painting and put a door where Jesus's feet used to be. I don't understand the reasoning that would facilitate cutting into a masterpiece to enlarge a door.

When you enter the building, you go through a few rooms which adjust the humidity of the group (25 allowed at a time), and then you enter the hall. It is so striking and beautiful. I was very touched and felt the spirit. I cannot imagine the serenity of those monks to eat all their meals looking at that painting. His perspectives and the way he makes the painting look like an extension of the very room it's in, is incredible.