We began our tour at Sforzesco Castle where we walked around and learned about history of Milan.
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| Sforzesco Castle |
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| Sforzesco Castle |
Within the Castle are several museums including one that houses Michelangelo's "Pietà Rondanini", Michelangelo's last artistic expression.
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| Michelangelo's "Pietà Rondanini" |
It depicts a moving and intense Deposition of the dead Jesus supported by his Mother standing before the burial. In the last ten years of his life, Michelangelo worked on this sculpture several times, constantly rethinking and changing its layout.
We returned to the Castle later to visit one of the largest collections of musical instruments in Europe. Here are just a few of these interesting instruments at the Museum of Musical Instruments:
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| Museum of Musical Instruments |
On our walk to view the "Last Supper", we spotted this Claes Oldenburg sculpture entitled "Needle, Thread and Knot".
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| "Needle, Thread and Knot" by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen |
This work consists of 2 sculptures:
(1) a threaded sewing needle plus (2) a knot of thread in a nearby fountain.
Situated on the sidewalk in front of the train station, the needle pulling thread through fabric is a metaphor for a train going through a tunnel. The three thread colours (red, green, yellow) selected by the artists are meant to reflect the three lines of the Milan Metro at the time. According to the City of Milan, it is also meant as a tribute to Milan's influence in the fashion industry.
We soon reached the beautiful Basilica of Santa Maria delle Grazie:
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| Basilica of Santa Maria delle Grazie |
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| Ceiling! |
The church remained standing after the bombings of WWII. Sadly, the attached Dominican convent was not so lucky. Leonardo had painted his mural of the "Last Supper" on a wall of the convent dining room. Amazingly, that wall and the opposite wall were all that remained standing after the bombing! After years of being exposed to the weather, a museum was built to house, protect and restore these magnificent works of art.
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| "Crucifixion" by Giovanni Donato da Montorfano |
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| "Last Supper" by Leonardo |
You can see where the door was that led to the kitchen.
What a great beginning for our visit of Milan!
Another day we took a vintage tram to the Church of San Maurizio at the Monastero Maggiore. Often called the "Sistine Chapel" of Milan, this church is decorated inside with wall-to-wall frescoes! These frescoes are primarily the works of Bernardino Luini, a Milanese painter during the early 1500s.
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| Church of San Maurizio at the Monastero Maggiore |
Behind the public sanctuary, there is the Hall of the Nuns and another impressive collection of frescoes!
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| Hall of the Nuns |
More Milan to come ...