Milano is a busy city that rivals with Paris for  its fashion sense .  I was there for the art and to see the sites but I did go look at the Prada shoes and purses  for the fun of it!  I liked this city because it felt friendly as we made our way on a walking tour of Milan from the Duomo , to the famous Scala Theatre. It is  the most famous theatre in the world that is almost never empty. It has the best acoustics so theatre performers  travel  to practice their performances from around the globe to get here.

After venturing out from the city center the roads start to twist and turn into small cobblestone streets and friendly neighborhoods with secret gardens among mossy terraces. The flowers trail down from their window boxes.  Gelato is not far and is an art itself peering out from the windows.

Next , was the Sforza Castle   and the Dukes court with slanted stairs made for the knights  as they ride up the castle tower . Everything is amazing  to see .  Even the    small art university Brera Academy with more art and statues on every corner with students traveling to their classes. I freely walked the halls in this open university and watched students close their massively old classroom doors as they entered .  I would love to take a class or two here.

We ended with the famous”The Last Supper”,  the late 15th-century mural painting by Leonardo da Vinci in the Santa Maria delle Grazie. It is not in a museum but a church and must buy your tickets well ahead of time . It is located in the dining room where you sit either on a  bench and view it up on the wall  or you may walk up to it but its best seen from the bench in my opinion. It is magnificent. No photos were allowed of much of the art here though. It is considered disrespectful to photograph it by some  and the art experts agree that flash photography can damage centuries old  paintings .

… .  We had to be dehumidified in a chamber before entering the actual room where the painting was created on the wall by Leonardo.

Here are just a few of the- many images I took while in Italy . Stay tuned for Florence next…..