Day 2 - Milan to Cinque Terre

 Day 2 Milan to Cinque Terre (Mamaross).

We were up and out by 8am on our way to a 3 hour walking tour of Milan. The start and highlight of the tour was a visit to Leonardo DaVinci's Last Supper. The "fresco" is housed in what was the dining hall of the monastery at the Basilica of Santa Maria delle Grazie. A fresco is pigment on wet plaster. DaVinci used some unusual techniques in creating his painting. He painted on a wall of dry plaster so he could take his time. So the painting has degraded over time. However, this worked to our advantage since the museum tightly controls the number of visitors at any one time. This makes it easy to see the work up close without a lot  of crowds.


The Last Supper




The Crucifixion of Christ - opposite from the Last Supper


The remainder of the tour was some general history of Milan, a visit to the Castello, Duomo (outside only during tour), the Galleria, and the Milan opera house.






After the tour was complete, we purchased tickets to enter the Duomo, which is the 3rd largest cathedral in the world after St. Peter's (vatican) and Seville Spain. It can hold 40,000 people and does seem very large. Building the Duo started in 1386 and the Milanese claimed wasn't completed until 1965. Not sure what took so long.  City inspections perhaps.....


Long line to get in even with a timed ticket


Construction going on above the alter. 




We picked up our bags from the hotel and dropped them off at our car before heading to Our Lady of Milan stop, the Chiesa di San Maurizio al Monastero Maggiore. The chapel has many frescos. Some call it the "Sistine Chapel" of Milan. The numerous frescos were quite impressive.







A 3 hour drive and short train ride got us to Manarola, one of the 5 towns in Cinque Terre, a famous area on the west coast of Italy. The 5 towns are all perched on the edge of the sea and the climbs up the hills and are very picturesque. So lots more pictures to come. After checking into our VRBO, we walked around the town and saw the sun set, before heading to dinner.








Grilled Sesame Crusted Tuna


Dessert was delicious. We forgot to take a photo. 


Tomorrow we will hike between two of the towns, Manarola and Rio maggiore.


Comments

  1. DianaApril 22, 2025 at 5:52 PM

    Beautiful paintings and breathtaking coastal scenery! The meal looked tasty!

    ReplyDelete

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