Heading Home

Flying Home

Wednesday we wandered around Milan in the afternoon with no plan. We stopped in the Duomo for another look, and some time to sit and ponder life in reverent silence. It was sprinkling so we went back to the café at the top of La Renascente. It is sad that we were unable to climb to the top of the duomo. Each time we made the attempt it was raining. Back home on the metro with Egle picking us up at the metro stop near her work.

She made salmon and zucchini, and we sat around chatting for hours. Gianluca opened a bottle of wine with his name on it. He explained that several years ago he had “adopted” a row at a vineyard. He was kept posted about its progress and he was allowed to help with various steps along the way. He finally got a call telling him that his baby was ready for pick-up . . . 15 bottles of Chianti. He gave us a bottle to take home.

Thursday; It was pouring rain, but we didn’t care. We had reservations to view The Last Supper by Di Vinci. We trudged through the city, hopping over puddles, until we finally found the church of Santa Maria de Grazie. We were checked in and told to wait in the lobby where we had a full description of what to expect written on the wall. Next we went to a vacuum sealed room, then another vacuum room, and one more. Finally we stepped into the dining room of the original priests here, for whom Di Vinci created this masterpiece. Just 13-14 years ago they finally restored it to its actual original painting. It had been painted over, plastered over, a door had been cut into it forever losing Jesus’ feet, the room was used as a military headquarters, as a stable for military livestock, and it had even been bombed. The walls all the way around it had been destroyed, but The Last Supper still stood. I show here a picture from the web. It is of a painted over version showing more detail. The cleaned version is much harder to appreciate as a photo.

The cool thing about this depiction of the supper is that other paintings done around that time almost always showed the disciples in communion, happy to be eating together. Di Vinci chose to represent the exact moment when Christ said “One of you will betray me”. Each disciple emotionally responds differently; “What the heck?”, “Who?”, suspicious stares, the one at the left end of the table is shown lunging to his feet with both hands on the table as if to say “What did you just say?”, all except Judas whose face is shadowed and he’s clutching a money bag in his right hand.

After the museum we tried to stay downtown, but we were just too wet, cold, and tired. Back home on the metro, a twenty minute walk in the rain and then a hot shower. Our last night was spent having dinner at a pub downtown and walking to a street-side wine café. We met Gianluca and Egle’s English teacher. He’s British and hilarious. We sat laughing and talking until the wee hours. Now I sit with an aching butt on a ten hour flight. Vacation is over.

See ya next time. We’re thinking Mexico . . .