We are about to leave Milan this morning. We are picking up the rental car at the Train Station and driving to Triora – about 300 KM

We do not have Internet access in Triora or Vernazza so we probably will be dropping off the radar for a week or so unless we find an Internet source while we are out and about.

We have had a nice time in Milan and the time has gone very fast…..

We have not had a huge amount of food while in Milan – we arrived early on Thursday morning and ate on the plane so we did not need too much food. We went to visit the Duomo and after that we went to a restaurant around the corner (in the view of the Duomo means you pay far too much)

Chris had a salad - very nice and quite large, lettuce, Radish, Olives, Mozzarella  and you just add Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar – cost 7 EURO

Pam had a Pizza, Milan style – pretty basic a very thin base which looked like a flour tortilla, with cheese and some tomato and basil – cost 7 EURO

A 1.5 litre bottle of water – 2.5 EURO

I think my salad was better value and I enjoyed it more than Pam enjoyed her pizza.

Coffee 

Well what can I say – great (but it still depends on where you get it)

We went to a little bar next to the train station and their espresso is 90 cents and is great. Basically an automatic machine (I may try to get a photo tomorrow before we leave), the man grinds the coffee and the just clicks a button to get an espresso.

I asked for a Cafe this morning in the hotel and they came back with crap American style watered down coffee. This is suppose to be called Cafe Americano so I asked for an espresso – but this was too hot and tasted like some in Christchurch- a bit bitter with a bad extraction.

Breakfast

I enjoyed the breakfast in the hotel this morning – basically as you would expect – bread, jam, sweets buns etc. There was also eggs (uova), cheese, salami, and luncheon.

There was a nice Pianoforte with orange which I liked.

Lunch

Pam and I went to the park today and had lunch there.

I had a Panini with Tomato and Mozzarella drizzled with Olive Oil which I enjoyed very much, Pam had just a Gelato.

Dinner

We went to a local restaurant around the corner from the hotel and had a pretty simple meal.

I had a Risotto Milanese – which was basically Saffron Rice and cheese – pretty basic and yellow – 7 EURO

Pam had a dish of Spaghetti and Clams which tasted nice to me but she said she preferred mine. – 8 EURO

A large beer (660 ML) – 4 EURO

Parco Sempione was built on part of what were originally the gardens and the huge 300-hectare hunting reserve of the Duke, adjacent to his castle. Sforza Castle, named after its architect Francesco Sforza, dates back to the 14th Century, being one of the last examples of Napoleonic art, as it was modernised by the Napoleones.

We sat on the grass and had a simple lunch, Pam just had a Limone Gelato 1.5 Euro, I had a Pomodore and Mozzarella Panini (sandwich) 2.5 Euro and later a Pistachio Gelato 1.5 Euro

We then strolled the park and caught the metro back to the central station and our hotel. We bought some beer (1.5 Euro per can) and water (49 Cents for 1.5 Litre) at the Super Mercato at the Train Station.

Today is Good Friday and as such it is a public holiday in Italy (as it is at home)

We have tickets (see http://www.cenacolovinciano.org) to Leonardo's Last Supper at Santa Maria delle Grazie church. You need to buy tickets well in advance and in our case we bought them on the internet about 2 months ago. You are granted 15 minutes in a group of 25 people maximum which is actually quite good since there are no queues and you have a good view of the restored painting.

You can get very close to the painting, about 6 feet, and in fact there was no security to stop you taking anything in the room.

This page allows you to view the room the painting is in in 360 degrees and zoom in and out
http://milan.arounder.com/da_vinci_last_supper/IT000005341.html

This page allows you to zoom into parts of the painting
http://milan.arounder.com/da_vinci_last_supper/IT000005356.html

You are not allowed to take photos in the gallery and you must go through a dust removal process where you go through a couple of air locks before you get in.

The painting is large at 4.6 by 8.8 meters (roughly 15 by 29 feet).

History of the Painting's Restoration

The method in which the painting was executed, on a dry surface, rather than on wet plaster, the traditional method for a fresco, meant that it stood up very poorly to the test of time. By 1556, the notable contemporary historian of the Renaissance Giorgio Vasari was describing the painting as  "ruined", to such a degree that the figures were no longer recognizable. In 1652, a door was cut through the bottom of the painting -- almost completely gone by that time -- and this can be seen in the gray unpainted area immediately below Jesus. The arch was eventually bricked up again.

Michelangelo Bellotti was the first artist to try to restore the painting. In 1726, he attempted to paint over the damaged sections with oil paint, and then cover the lot with varnish to preserve it from further deterioration. However, the methods and materials of the time were unequal to the task, and another restoration had to be attempted in 1770, some 44 years later. Giuseppe Mazza completely undid Bellotti's work and started from scratch, essentially re-painting the work. However, he was never allowed to finish, as the public was outraged at what they saw as creative liberties on his part.

In 1796, Napoleon's French troops were stationed around the convent and used the refectory as a makeshift prison, though it is unknown what further damage this caused.

In 1821, an attempt was made to move the "fresco" to a safer location. Stefano Barezzi, the expert charged with this task, damaged the painting quite badly before he realized that the work was not a fresco, but had been painted on a dry surface. He attempted to fix the damage he had done, but this only made the situation worse. From 1901 to 1908, Luigi Cavenaghi began a careful cleaning of the painting. He was followed by Oreste Silvestri in 1924, who cleaned the painting further and stabilized those parts that were still intact with stucco.

In 1943, during World War II, the convent was struck by a bomb. While sandbags had been put up to protect the painting from bomb splinters, vibration may have caused further damage. After the war, from 1951 to 1954, another cleaning and stabilization was attempted by Mauro Pelliccioli.

It was not until the end of the 20th Century that a major restoration of this key work of art was undertaken. Between 1978 and 1999, under the leadership of Pinin Brambilla Barcilon, a concerted effort was made to reverse the damage caused by time, dirt, pollution and previous restoration attempts and to permanently stabilize the painting. Since the method used for the original painting made it impossible to move, the refectory was sealed off and set up with climate-controlling equipment. A detailed study of the painting was conducted using state-of-the-art methods such as infrared reflectoscopy and microscopic core-sampling. To determine the painting's original shape, the restorers studied Leonardo's sketches, as well as contemporary copies of the painting.Some areas had undergone such extensive damage that the restorers concluded that they were unrestorable and re-painted these areas in subdued watercolors, in order to demonstrate that these were not part of the originial work.

The results of the restoration were unveiled on May 28, 1999. There was considerable controversy over some of the decisions made by the restoration team, which included drastic changes in color, tone, and even the facial features of some of the apostles.

Same photos in a different layout

Below is an example of the zoom on my new Camera – Canon SX1-IS

After a quick rest in the hotel we decided to go to the Piazza Del Duomo to see the Cathedral (Duomo in Italian)

It was a lovely day – probably 18 degrees Celsius or so by 11:30am

We caught a Metro train from the central station to the Duomo station for 1 Euro each

On exiting the metro station you are presented with the following:

We have had a few coffees, the price of an Cafe Espresso is generally around 80-90 euro cents (that is if you stand at the bar) and they taste good..

We arrived in Milan from Singapore Airlines flight SQ387 ( 12 Hours + 45 Minutes ) at approx 6:45am local time.

The aircraft was a Boeing 777 300 ER which means not a lot to most people but it was larger than the 777 from Christchurch to Singapore which was probably a 777 200.

We had more leg room and there was more space between the isles, the entertainment system was also updated with screens that were about 9” or 10” wide and of very high quality.

We left and aircraft and went through immigration which was basically “here is my passport, they stamp it” and it was all over – nothing to fill in at all.

We picked up our bags and went through the nothing to declare isle (we bought two bottles of Bombay Saphire – $29 Singapore each – which is about $33 NZD) and we were out in the Milan Airport terminal – time 5 minutes

We bought a ticket on the Malpensa shuttle – 7 Euro each, the trip into town took almost an hour to cover the 60km – lots of traffic at 7:45am-8:30am on a Thursday morning.

Once the bus arrived at the Stazionne Central (Central Station) we walked to our hotel which was around the corner  - 3 minutes

We checked in to the Hotel Monopole, and were given a room right away and also got a free upgrade to a superior room.  When we made the booking back in December we asked for a refurnished room and also that we would be arriving early, and it was very nice for both of these requests to have been accepted.

Not long after we settled in we needed to go out and visit Milan and found that our door could easily be pushed open so we told the reception and we got a new room.

On arriving in Singapore we are greeted with a typical 30 degree evening – and very sticky….

We booked a shuttle to take us to our hotel, $9 each

It had been raining when we arrived so humidity was very close to 100%, but the time we got out on the roads they were clearing up.

The driver did not know how to find the entrance to the hotel so we had to go around the block which took 10 minutes, so oeverall it took close to an hour to get from the airport to the hotel due to traffic, and dropping another couple of people.

We checked in and had a quick rest and went out to see the world around Little India.

There were lots of people out and lots of shops.

The mostaffa shopping centre is open 24 hours a day and sold pretty much all you would ever need. Looking for a new Home Theatre at 4am no worries just pop in and grab one.

Lots of nice smells out there and some not so nice – the Durian were particularly stinky …

We did not buy any food since we had been fed on the plane so just bought some water from a shop.

Next day we got up and went for a walk and had breakfast at a vegetarian restaurant but we were too early so could not have what we wanted. We ended up having a Puri set – set was a Puru + two small curries, one with chick peas and the other more normal vegetables – they were both very yummy

We had a late checkout from the hotel to 4pm so we went down to China Town and had a peeking duck.

When we got back to the hotel we went to the bar and I had a couple of beers and Pam a lemonade. The beers were $6.25 each (1/2 price – happy hour) and Pam's lemonade was $7 so about $25 including taxes…

We caught a taxi to the airport and it took what felt a long time but the base fare was only $13 + Charges so about $20 all up – which was good value.

We had a 4-5 hour wait at the airport as our plane did not leave until 11:45pm so we looked around and found the butterfly farm.

We then boarded our plane for the next 12 hours and 45 minutes…

220-230V
50Hz

Earthed (3 prong) or not-earthed (2 prong)

For more details about different power and plugs see http://www.yung-li.com.tw/EN/info/ww_specifications.htm