Day 13 (16 May 2025)
Today, we took the the train from Bologna to Milan. A little about Italian trains: It's quite an odd system IMO. For one, most of the train stations don't require you to pass through a ticketed gate. If you have a physical ticket, you need to get it validated at one of the machines near the platforms. If you have an e-ticket like us cos we bought them online, you only need to show the conductor IF one boards the train.
I don't know if they do this to speed up the process and avoid people bunching up at the gates, but it seems to me like it's such an easy security breech. You can technically board any platform and train you want, as long as you don't meet a conductor on a train as you'll be have a hefty fine slapped on you if you're found without a ticket (on several journeys, we never saw a conductor).
This also means that it's easy to board the wrong train, especially if you're a tourist unfamiliar with the system. It almost happened to us today. We were waiting at the correct platform but our mistake was boarding the next train that came along without checking the time. The confusion came about when we found someone sitting in "our" seats. Fortunately, the lady spoke English and spotted the mistake on our ticket in time. We hopped off the train with just minutes to spare. Thank God for that, otherwise we would have found ourselves on the fast train to Venice and screwed up our entire day's itinerary 😅
So far, we've been taking Italo and it's a good choice. Italo is a late entrance to the Italian train system. The trains are newer and according to locals, more reliable. The older Trenitalia trains are prone to delays and breakdowns. Where possible, choose Italo.
Anyway, we made it to Milan with no further hiccup and right away, we could feel that this city is different. The Milan train station is dazzling with its tall glass ceilings and majestic columns.
Milan city feels a lot more modern and cosmopolitan. It's the first city in Italy where we've seen skyscrapers. The subway is very well-connected and can get you to most tourist attractions, unlike Rome (though we perfectly understand how difficult it must be to build a metro system in Rome - dig anywhere and you hit an archeological site!)
Still the trend towards small cars!
We took a walk to Sforzesca Castle. It's a medieval fortress built in the 15th C by the Duke of Milan, and has all the elements of the ancient castles you see in movies - moat, drawbridge and towers. Today, it houses art galleries and museums.
However, this place is also teeming with touts and some of them are quite aggressive, which made us feel a little unsafe. Perhaps something to do with the lack of police presence?
Anyhoo, Milan was never on our itinerary as it's the fashion and business, neither of which interests us. We only decided to make a day trip to Milan solely for one reason - to see Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper. The Last Supper is a mural in the Convent of Santa Maria dell Grazie which incidentally, is a small but beautiful building (though probably ignored by most people!)
The Last Supper was painted in around 1495. During that period, many of the leading Renaissance artists in Italy were invited by the Pope to paint the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City. Leonardo was not invited because he previously had sodomy charges against him (even though they were dismissed). He left Rome for Milan to help the Duke of Milan design and build war machines, which was how he came to be available to paint the Last Supper - a serendipitous move for Milan! (Funny, I always thought da Vinci was Leo's surname. It's not - it means "Leonardo from Vinci". He didn't have a surname cos he was born out of wedlock.)
Leonardo was commissioned to paint the Last Supper on the church's dining room wall where Dominican monks gathered so they could contemplate the passion of Jesus in this room where they spent a lot of time. It's a smallish room, quite bare except for the mural and another mural on the opposite wall (which I guess nobody paid attention to as we're only allowed 15mins in the room!)
During the Renaissance, the Last Supper was a popular biblical narrative for artists. But before Leonardo, other artists had painted the scene with stiff, expressionless characters like pillars. All the characters would have halos except Judas who would be seated apart (in case you missed his villainous quality!) Leonardo's Last Supper was revolutionary as his scene had so much movement and captured the emotions of each person reacting to Jesus' news that someone would betray him - shock, disbelief, grief.
True to his mathematical inclinations, Leonard calculated and and tied strings to map out the perfect perspective with the vanishing point at Jesus' right eye. Leonardo sought symmetry in his paintings and composed this one in four groups of threes around the table, with Jesus forming a triangle with his arms.
The first group of three (L-R) is Bartholomew, James (son of Alphaeus) and Andrew. The second group is Peter, leaning towards John to ask who the traitor is, and Judas nearer the foreground tipping over the salt cellar which is a euphemism for betraying one's master. The feminine looking figure Peter is talking to is not Mary Magdalene as suggested in the Da Vinci Code but the Apostle John. John was often portrayed with feminine features back then to show his purity.
Then we have Jesus in the centre looking grieved. On the right are the next group of three: Thomas, James the Greater and Philip.
Finally, the last group of three are Matthew, Jude Thaddeus and Simon the Zealot.
Leonardo was a slow painter. He liked to reflect in between painting and make changes, so he didn't use the tried and tested method of fresco painting on wet plaster as that dries quickly. Ever the experimenter, Leonardo instead chose to use tempera on dry plaster with a layer of gesso underneath. However, this made the painting prone to deterioration and cracks. Add to that the humidity that must have come from being next to the kitchen, the painting was already flaking a few years after it was painted.
In the 1700s, disastrous attempts at restoration included adding varnish, glue and wax which darkened the painting, and then getting amateurs to paint over Leonardo's work, changing the features of the figures. It had become practically unrecognisable. In 1977, master restorer Barcilon was asked to reverse the damage. It took her more than 20 years and the help of technology to painstakingly restore the painting millimeter by millimeter.
Before I saw the painting, I didn't know if I would be underwhelmed. I mean, it's just one painting, how special can it be? Is it more hype than substance? But when I saw it in person, I was so moved. I feel so privileged to have had the opportunity to see this in person, it's indescribable. Very different from seeing it in photos. It's so beautifully expressive, it made me want to cry 🥲
After that, we explored more of Milan city centre. The Milan duomo blew us away. I'd already known what to expect as I've seen photos of it and even drawn it before, but in person it's such a commanding monument. The white marble gives it such a fairy tale vibe.
Next to the duomo is the Galleria, Vittorio Emanuele II, Italy's oldest shopping arcade. Another magnificent building and the inside is all glass and gold, housing all the luxury brands. Too many tourists lugging huge branded paper bags, taking selfies and eating in overpriced restaurants for my tastes. I'm personally not fond of pretentious fashion houses but my attitude towards them softened somewhat when I found out that many of the restoration projects of Italian monuments are made possible only with their sponsorship, eg. Colosseum by Tod's, Uffizi Gallery by Salvatore Ferragamo, Pantheon by Bulgari, Trevi Fountain by Fendi. Glad the funds are going towards worthy causes!
We had half an hour to spare before our train back to Bologna, and I wanted to sketch the duomo on site (urban sketching dreams!) I silently asked God if He would be so kind as to give me a good spot. There's only one bench beneath a fountain where one can sit and view the duomo from the front and I saw that they were all taken. Then as we approached it, a lady got up and left. It was right smack centre in front of the duomo and shaded. A perfect view. God is so good. 💜
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I'll just mention our meals. For lunch, we stopped by a pizza place where there was quite a good set deal going on. The pizza was not bad but the wine (which came with the set) was rubbish 😆 By the way, in Italy, you eat everything with a fork and knife, whether it's meat or pasta or pizza. Nobody eats pizza with their hands!
By dinner, I couldn't stomach any more rich Italian food so Andre reluctantly brought me to this Chinese-run diner. It's supposed to be Chinese but it serves ravioli, which we figured out are dumplings (with pork and chives filling) except in pasta skin! It's very odd.
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