10/17 : Day 13 - Sightseeing in Milan

 

The first event of the day was a tour of the chapel Santa Maria delle Grazie (originally a convent/monastery) where Leonardo di Vinci painted The Last Supper. Due to the size of the painting and the need to control the temperature/humidity, only 25 people at a time are allowed in the chapel where the painting was done. No photography is allowed. Instead of using the standard fresco technique of painting on wet plaster, da Vinci applied tempera to the dry wall instead. Fresco painting requires the artist to work rapidly before the plaster dries, but since The Last Supper was not a fresco he was able take as long as he liked, in this case from 1595 to 1597. However, by 1617 the painting was already beginning to deteriorate. A number of restorations were attempted over the years, some of which did more damage than good. Further damage was done when Napoleon's army used the convent for stabling horses. Then in WWII the building took a direct hit during a bombing raid. Fortunately the monks had fortified the wall on which the painting resided. The most recent restoration was carried out between 1977 and 1999.

Although the rainy weather from yesterday continued all day, it did not stop our sightseeing which included the Sforzesco Castle, the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele and the Duomo (another of Carol's must see cathederals!). The Galleria is host to most of Italy's very exclusive stores, all of which are enclosed by vast metal and glass domes.