Lombardy Aug 6-8, 2021
I flew from La Palma, Mallorca to Verona (via Rome) on Alitalia (80E + 50E for one piece of checked baggage) in 3 ½ hours.
Covid. No PCR is required but vaccination is necessary. For proof of vaccination, they accepted my British Columbia vaccination card. It was required to enter most museums and the Duomo. Italy has 1m distancing and most people don’t wear masks outside.
Registration and Check-in. From anywhere in Europe, it is necessary to register for Italy at www.euplf.eutps. No one at check-in had done this and everyone was on their phones.
I had arrived at check half an hour before it opened, hoping to have a nice brunch and relax airside. The website was a disaster (maybe because I am a Luddite?). It didn’t accept my email address for a long time, then the confirmation password didn’t appear. One sends an email used to give access to the questionnaire. When you clicked the Send button, the button never changed colour and I must have done it 50 times before someone said “check your email” – and there it was! I had asked for help 20 times to this point. The link to the questionnaire didn’t work for a long time but I finally registered, answered a hundred questions (each onerous) and was finally sent the required QR code necessary to check in. It took 1 3/4 hours to this point. The weak airport wifi didn’t help (there were thousands on it).
When I booked the flight, there was no opportunity to add checked baggage and I had to pay first. The woman’s accent was so thick and I ran all over the airport looking for the Alitalia desk. There was none and I finally was told the desk was very close to check-in at a desk that said nothing about Alitalia. So once I finally checked by luggage, I had to clear security and walk the mile to my gate. It was then time to board, I grabbed an over-priced sandwich and was the last to board.
Views from the air showed all land around Rome to be brown, but things greened up considerably by Verona.
Why I was in Verona. I was here to pick up my VW California. I had driven it 180,000 km around Europe, from Iceland to Baku, Azerbaijan. I sleuth camped always and never paid for accommodation for over 700 nights. I also cooked 95% of my own meals.
I had been hit by a drunk driver on Jan 1, 2020, outside of Verona. My insurance company (AG in Brussels) did nothing but obstruct the repair. Understandably, Vicentini, the VW dealer in Verona eventually refused to deal with them. AG sent me 12,000 E (incurring double exchange and transfer fees as the money entered my account, was changed to CAD and then back into euros to send to the garage) to start the repair. I then had to personally pay the additional 15,000E for the entire repair to get things started. Until the very end, I could never talk to anyone at the garage because no one spoke English. I was constantly referred to a former Vicentini employee who ran a used car lot 20 km from the garage. He was no help.
For a foreigner to own and buy insurance in Europe is difficult. My name was on nothing, but a separate piece of paper stating I was the owner – instead the owner was listed as My California Rental Services where I had purchased it in the first place. It functions like a lease – they register and buy the insurance.
I finally sent the garage all the documents and was then communicating with a wonderful woman who spoke impeccable English. It was not until June 24, almost 18 months after the accident, that repairs started. Amazingly, this was ok as because of COVID, I was unable to drive it anyway. The repairs were slated to be finished on August 3, and I arrived in Verona on the 4th to pick it up at 8 am on the 5th. I thus didn’t have to pay storage for the entire time, saving a few thousand euros. There were also several dings from “parking accidents” that were also repaired for free. One negative was that I had to pay the 2,150 euro/year insurance all the time – storage insurance is not available in Europe. It should have been possible to deregister the van and return the plates but My California refused to do this. As it turns out, I should have had the van shipped to Belgium for repairs. As of August 2021, I have not been paid for the towing nor a 500E bill for storage at the towing company. I had to pay the 700E deductible (even though the accident was not my fault) and have not received hotel or flight costs related to the accident. I was also owed for the ripped Levis torn in the fight in the middle of the 3-lane highway with the drunk driver and his three friends. As far as I know, AG still has not obtained the police report or pursued the other driver. I even asked AG to suggest a good legal firm in Brussels to sue them. They didn’t like that and cancelled my insurance on October 30, even though I had paid for the entire year. I could never have made up this story, but it is all true.
Rome airport is lovely and functional, but not Verona. I was never able to get free airport wifi as they used an incredible method of having to phone the provider. All messages were oddly in Russian and without data or a connection to wifi, I was unable to phone. There is little food and no bathroom in departures. Verona Airport also closes from 11 pm to 6 am so I had scouted out camping spots. It had rained the entire time but I found a great roofed spot at the car rental building and was asleep by 11.
At 7 am, I was on the airport bus (6E) to go to the main bus station and then a public bus to the garage. It took me a few hours to reorganize everything left in 4 large boxes and a giant plastic bag. I had clothes and several staples that had been left. I also had to pay 750E for the routine service due. A check engine light came on within 60kms. I came the next day to see Francesco Meninghini, the head of service when I arranged the repairs to thank him for his help. I saw the police report for the first time. The other driver had no insurance and Italy does not cover anyone who was drunk and in an accident. So much for 3rd party liability insurance.
I then tried to get a ferry to Sardinia but gave up as most were booked for several days and cost almost 200E each way (5 ½ hours). I then decided to fly for ¼ the cost and only see parts of Sardinia.
My basic travel plan over the next month was to drive through Italy and then along the Mediterranean through south France, Spain, Portugal, France, and Belgium and finally sell the California to My California in Amsterdam, where I had bought it (paid 51,000E and sold it for 43,000) praying for no accidents. It was great to be reunited with a vehicle I had fallen in love with. It has everything but a toilet. Using it is much more limited than expected – the specific butane tanks cannot be purchased in Scandinavia or Eastern Europe. My original plan was to drive it from Cairo to Cape Town but that is impossible because of the butane issues, high sulphur diesel (instantly plugs the diesel particulate filter, 3,500 E to replace) and would require I fill the van with Ad Blue, not available in all of Africa until South Africa.
I have travelled extensively through all countries (most my third trip) and this trip was only orientated to visiting all the WHS I had previously missed. I have unlimited time and insurance on the van till October 30 but hope to complete it all in 3-4 weeks. After driving it 180,000 km to see every country in Europe and western Asia, it felt like home.
Some early observations on Italy and Europe.
1. Driving in Europe is much more demanding than in North America. Speeds are 130 on the freeways. Most major highways are at least three-lane – the right lane is clogged with trucks going 100kms/hour and the left lane generally has no speed limit. Few are as fast as the autobahns in Germany where 200kms/hour is common – mind your p’s and q’s here. Everywhere else is a giant speed trap. It is virtually impossible to keep track of all the speed limits especially when the radar is 25m inside the speed zone. Tickets in Italy are at least 120E. Don’t drive in a bus lane as it costs the same. I brought a radar detector from home on this 2021 trip to hopefully avoid them.
Don’t make a mistake on the often complex interchanges. Because of tolls, access points are far apart – most mistakes will take at least 50 km of driving to correct.
2. Tolls are expensive averaging about one €per 10kms. But still use them as much as possible. Unless you have no time limits and are not easily frustrated, the secondary roads are impossibly slow with dogs, pedestrians, slow traffic, and farm machinery and have innumerable speed zones. Just the extra gas pays for the tolls. One misses the up-close views of the towns and countryside.
3. Diesel is usually cheaper than gas and Italy averages 1.49E/litre. Make sure to top up your tank in the towns as the large stations on the freeways cost .30E more. Also, don’t buy anything in these money grabs.
4. How to travel for cheap in Europe.
a. Avoid doing any business in airports. Food is ridiculously priced. Bring a water bottle that can be filled at fountains. Pop is 3-4 times the cost. Most low-cost airlines provide no food so bring something to eat bought outside.
c. Money: Never exchange money in airports. Never use the ubiquitous EuroNet ATMs as they have crazy exchange rates and fees. It is easy to find ATMs that are fair and don’t charge 5E per transaction. There are ways to also avoid your home bank’s $5 fees for withdrawals. Don’t bring local currency from home as ATMs provide the best rates. Never let any transaction convert to your home currency (this is often a choice) but let your bank do the exchange rates. Use elite credit cards to avoid the insurance provided by the rental company. The coverage is much better and they protect your interests.
c. Travel in a car or camper. Registering and insuring a vehicle is impossibly difficult so don’t think of buying a vehicle unless you can use it like I did – for long durations and not paying for accommodation and less on food. Get a vehicle that doesn’t depreciate much – nothing is as good as a California.
d. Camping. This may appeal to a few but in 2021-22, I came prepared to camp as much as possible. The Big Agnes one-man tent weighs 1kg. A Thermarest Uberlite sleeping pad weighs 220 grams and is the size of a 12oz glass (this pad is really what made camping possible). My Western Mountaineering Mitylite barrel sleeping bag opens like a quilt and is comfortable to 4 C. Add a sleep sheet and pillowcase to hold your down jacket. All fits in my small daypack with room for a fleece top, my Mac Air computer and Kindle. I also have a small secondary pack to hold a few essentials. This is what I packed when I rented scooters. I slept everywhere – miradors were my favourite. I routinely sleep in airports. Use the website “Sleeping in Airports” to know the best places to safely bunk down. I bring plastic ties to connect stuff. The site also gives the best general information on every airport in the world.
e. Provide your own breakfast and lunch for ¼ the cost. These are easy meals to make, what you want, and generally much better than what you can buy. Consider every day a picnic. I have never been impressed with the food in restaurants. You wouldn’t like the pizza in Italy anyway – with its soft crust that everything slides off of, it is much better elsewhere (the best I have ever had was in Phenom Penh, Cambodia).
THE TRIP
From Verona, Italy my trip consisted of:
LOMBARDY
Mantova and Sabbionetta. WHS. Mantua and Sabbioneta, in the Po valley, only 50kms from Verona but in Lombardy, represent two aspects of Renaissance town planning linked by the ruling Gonzaga family: Mantua shows the renewal and extension of an existing city, irregular with regular parts showing different stages of its growth since the Roman period and includes many medieval edifices among them an 11th-century rotunda and a Baroque theatre. Mantua traces stem from the Roman period and were renovated in the 15th and 16th centuries – including hydrological engineering, and urban and architectural works.
20 km away, Sabbioneta, represents the construction of an entirely new town created in the second half of the 16th century as a single-period city with a right-angle grid layout. according to the modern, functional vision of the Renaissance. It is one of the best examples of ideal cities built in Europe, with an influence over urbanism and architecture in and outside the continent.
Old Church (Duomo Vechia), Brescia. The very first church was built of material scavenged from Roman ruins. The 11th-century church was built over the original crypt. The present building was constructed in 1512 after a fire. The most prominent part is a round baptistery made of rough white stone. It was closed but appeared to have several construction periods.
The new church next door (and connected somehow), the Cathedral of Brescia (Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta) is a grand building but wonderfully plain gray stone inside without all the gilt. Even the windows are plain glass. Four massive sets of 6 columns support the dome over the nave. The parts I enjoyed most were the bronze gnarled tree supporting the pulpit. A bronze eagle supports the lectern and a grand brass chair sits on the altar. The monument to Pope Paul VI is a wonderful bronze creation. The Ways of the Cross made of sculpted terracotta may be the best I’ve seen.
Cathedral of Bergamo. It is visible from everywhere as it sits on top of the high hill above the city. I drove up here to eat and possibly sleep with a view of the city below at night, but the only views are two tiny spaces between buildings.
The old church has lovely porticos supported by columns resting on the lion’s backs. One newer-looking wall has a great three-dimensional tiled facade.
Don’t miss the 1798 solar calendar laid in a 30 m-long length of marble orientated on a north-south axis on the stone next to the two churches here. The sun shines through a tiny hole in a disc hanging from an arch and accurately shows the day and month of the year. Next to it is a lovely square surrounded by restaurants and bars filled with people. Sensibly, it appears that there is no indoor seating unlike in Spain.
I had dinner sitting outside (the California has good collapsible chairs and a table) and then drove down into the town to sleep. After a good sleep, I left at 4 am to see all the non-museum sites in Milan. I have seen so many museums (1,455 at last count), it takes an outstanding one to excite me – and they are very expensive unless one buys the city cards and you see most everything on the card.
Monza is a city and comune on the River Lambro, a tributary of the Po about 15 kilometres north-northeast of Milan. Monza is best known for its Grand Prix motor racing circuit, the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, which hosts the Formula One Italian Grand Prix with a massive Italian support tifosi for the Ferrari team.
MILAN
Shoah Memorial. Memoriale della Shoah is a Holocaust memorial at the Milano Centrale railway station commemorating the Jewish prisoners deported from there during the Holocaust in Italy. Jewish prisoners from the San Vittore Prison, Milan, were taken from there to a secret underground platform, Platform 21, to be loaded on freight cars and taken on Holocaust trains to extermination camps, either directly or via other transit camps. Twenty trains and up to 1,200 Jewish prisoners left Milan in this fashion to be murdered, predominantly at Auschwitz.
After the Italian surrender on 8 September 1943 and the occupation of northern Italy by German forces, Milan became a centre for processing, interrogating and torturing captured resistance fighters and Jews, which was carried out by both the German police and the Italian Muti police unit. Prisoners were held at San Vittore Prison but were also taken for interrogation and torture at either the headquarters of the German police at Hotel Regina or at the headquarters of the Muti unit in an army base at Via Rovello.
Milan served as a central deportation place for the Jews of northern Italy, who were brought there from other cities like Genoa and Turin as well as rural regions like the Aosta Valley. The loading of deportees onto carriages took place in the early mornings to ensure secrecy and also prevent disruption of the vital daily mail and freight services.
The first holocaust train with deportees left Milan from Platform 21 on 6 December 1943, carrying 169 Jews to Auschwitz; only 5 of them survived the Holocaust. A second train left on 30 January 1944, carrying 600 deportees, 40 of them children including Liliana Segre, who were taken on a seven-day journey to Auschwitz. Upon arrival at Auschwitz on the morning of 6 February, 500 of them were killed within a few hours and their bodies burned in the crematorium.
Between 6 December 1943 and 15 January 1945, when the last train left for Bolzano, 20 trains and up to 1,200 Jewish prisoners left Milan from Platform 21 for either the Italian transit camps at Fossoli and Bolzano, or Auschwitz, Mauthausen, and Bergen-Belsen.
Platform 21 remained virtually forgotten for the next four decades. It was rediscovered in 1995 when the local Catholic organization Sant’Egidio made the Jewish community of Milan aware of it. It opened in 2013.
According to the foundation for the memorial, Binario 21 is the only European site that was involved in the deportations that still remains intact. The memorial features two original freight cars that were used in the deportations, and a wall onto which the names of the people deported from the station to concentration camps are projected.
Bosco Verticale. This consists of 2 apartment buildings each with very strong terraces holding plants and trees – 900 in the 111m tall building and 380 in the 76m tall building. A 600 sq ft apartment sells for over a million dollars. Around the apartments is a nice neighbourhood of squares, parks and places to walk.
Unicredit Tower. At 231 metres (758 ft), it is the tallest building in Italy. Finished in 2011, when the spire was attached. The building is the headquarters of UniCredit, Italy’s largest bank by assets. The Allianz Tower, at 209 metres (686 ft), is still the tallest building in Italy if ranked by highest usable floor.
The water fountain outside is a popular swimming place for kids.
The spire is entirely covered with LED lights and has continuous night lighting. The colours can be varied according to the event.
Pirelli Tower. 32-storey, 127 m (417 ft) skyscraper with a structural skeleton, curtain wall façades and tapered sides, it was among the first skyscrapers to abandon the customary block form. After its completion, it was the tallest building in Italy but in 1961 Mole Antonelliana recovered priority after rebuilding its pinnacle. The architectural historian Hasan-Uddin Khan praised it as “one of the most elegant tall buildings in the world” and as one of the “few tall European buildings [that made] statements that added to the vocabulary of the skyscraper.
I then found a great parking spot near the north corner of the Park that was free and had a great 6-hour walkabout seeing these in order.
Sempione Park is a large city park established in 1888. It has an overall area of 38.6 hectares and it is located in the historic centre of the city. The park is adjacent to the gardens of the Sforza Castle and to the Arch of Peace, two of the main landmarks of Milan. A third prominent monument is the Palazzo dell’Arte (“Palace of Art”), built in 1933 and designed by Giovanni Muzio, which currently houses the Triennale di Milano art expo.
In the park are Arena Civica, the public aquarium, and the Torre Branca Tower. The X Triennial Pavilion (1954) has been converted into a public library.
Originally, the park was a forest composed mainly of oaks and chestnut woods and inhabited by exotic animals introduced by members of the house of Sforza. The park was abandoned and used as a parade ground for the soldiers.
Teatro Alto Scala. is the Milan Opera House inaugurated in 1778. Most of Italy’s greatest operatic artists, and many of the finest singers from around the world, have appeared at La Scala. The theatre is regarded as one of the leading opera and ballet theatres in the world and is home to the La Scala Theatre Chorus, La Scala Theatre Ballet, La Scala Theatre Orchestra, and the Filarmonica della Scala orchestra.
Above the boxes, La Scala has a gallery—called the loggione—where the less wealthy can watch the performances. The gallery is typically crowded with the most critical opera aficionados, known as the loggionisti, who can be ecstatic or merciless towards singers’ perceived successes or failures.
The original structure was renovated in 1907 to 1,987 seats. In 1943, it was severely damaged by bombing and rebuilt and reopened in 1946. La Scala hosted the first productions of many famous operas and had a special relationship with Verdi. It hosted the premiere of what was to become his penultimate opera, Otello. The premiere of his last opera, Falstaff was also given in the theatre.
The theatre underwent a major renovation from 2002 to 2004. The stage was entirely rebuilt, and an enlarged backstage allowed more sets to be stored, permitting more productions. Seats now include monitors allowing audiences to follow opera libretti in English and Italian in addition to the original language.
Leonardo da Vinci Statue. It sits in Piazza della Scala connected to the main square of Milan, Piazza del Duomo, by the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II passage. The centre of the square i s occupied by this statue. Leonardo da Vinci worked and lived from 1482-1499 and from 1506-1513 in Milan at the Sforza Castle.
His job was to take care of the cultural life and the arts at the court of Milan. During this period, Leonardo da Vinci was busy with inventions, the expansion of the system of Navigli and the construction of locks as well as the study of man. During his time in Milan, he also created the artwork “The Last Supper” and the famous “Lady with Hermlin” (owned by the Czartoryski Museum in Krakow) by sculptor Pietro Magni (1872).
Via Monte Napolono. The high-end shopping street in Milan with all the famous brand names. It is handbag heaven.
Palazzo Monado. Built in the 18th century, it was renovated completely in 1903. It has an art gallery section (not so great paintings but lovely sculptures and apartments. They are lavish with painted ceilings. Free
Verziere Column is a baroque-manneristic monumental column dedicated to “Jesus Christ the Redeemer” and located in Largo Augusto. It is named after the “Verziere”, the traditional greengrocery street market of Milan that, until 1783, was located in the surrounding district. The construction of the column began in 1580, but it was only completed in 1673. After the unification of Italy, it was repurposed as a monument to commemorate the martyrs who died during the Five Days of Milan. The top of the column has a statue of “Christ the Redeemer”.
The construction was ordered by the “Confraternity of the Sacred Cross of Porta Tosa”, a Milanese religious order with the purpose of both a votive offering to celebrate the end of the epidemic of plague that occurred in Milan in 1576-1577 and as a symbol of the power of Christianity to be opposed to the malicious power of the witches that were believed to inhabit the neighbourhood.
Milan Duomo. The Milan Cathedral or Metropolitan Cathedral-Basilica of the Nativity of Saint Mary is the cathedral church of Milan, the seat of the Archbishop of Milan. The cathedral took nearly six centuries to complete: construction began in 1386, and the final details were completed in 1965. It is the largest church in Italy—the larger St. Peter’s Basilica is in the State of Vatican City, a sovereign nation—and the second-largest in Europe and the third-largest in the world.
The first cathedral was completed by 355 with an adjoining basilica erected in 836. The old octagonal baptistery, the Battistero Paleocristiano, dates to 335 and still can be visited under the Cathedral. When a fire damaged the cathedral and basilica in 1075, they were rebuilt as the Duomo. In 1386, construction of the cathedral began and in 1500 to 1510, the octagonal cupola was completed and decorated in the interior with four series of 15 statues each. In 1638 the facade began with five portals and two middle windows in Gothic style. In 1762 one of the main features of the cathedral, the Madonnina’s spire was erected at the dizzying height of 108.5 m with its famous polychrome Madonnina statue In 1805-12, Napoleon Bonaparte finished the facade with most of the missing arches and spires constructed and in 1829–1858, new stained glass windows replaced the old ones. The last details of the cathedral were finished only in the 20th century and completed in 1965. It is entirely colourful Candoglia marble. 5€
Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II is Italy’s oldest active shopping gallery and a major landmark of Milan. Housed within a four-story double arcade in the center of town, the Galleria is named after Victor Emmanuel II, the first king of the Kingdom of Italy. It was designed in 1861 and built by architect Giuseppe Mengoni between 1865 and 1877.
The structure consists of two glass-vaulted arcades intersecting in an octagon covering the street connecting Piazza del Duomo to Piazza della Scala. The street is covered by an arching glass and cast-iron roof and the central octagonal space is topped with a glass dome. Under it are four mosaics portraying the coat of arms of the three capitals of the Kingdom of Italy Tradition says that if a person spins around three times with a heel on the testicles of the bull from the Turin coat of arms this will bring good luck. This practice causes damage to the mosaic: a hole developed in the place of the bull’s genitals.
As of 2013, the arcade principally contains luxury retailers selling haute couture, jewelry, books and paintings, as well as restaurants, cafés, bars, and a hotel, the Town House Galleria. It is home to some of the oldest shops and restaurants in Milan, such as Biffi Caffè, the Savini restaurant, the Borsalino hat shop (1883) and the Art Nouveau classic Camparino. In 2012, a McDonald’s restaurant was prevented from renewing its tenancy, after 20 years of occupancy. McDonald’s sued the landlord—the city of Milan—for €24 million in damages but was replaced with the gallery’s second Prada store, McDonald’s renounced its suit against the City of Milan after receiving the opportunity to open a new restaurant in a nearby area.
Royal Palace. Across the street from the Duomo, this holds the Duomo Museum.
Velasco Tower is a skyscraper built in the 1950s part of the first generation of Italian modern architecture. Approximately 100 metres tall, has a peculiar and characteristic mushroom-like shape with the lower parts narrower and the higher parts propped up by wood or stone beams. It is being totally renovated in 2021.
The Last Supper (Leonardo) is a late 15th-century mural painting by Leonardo da Vinci housed by the refectory of the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie. It is one of the Western world’s most recognizable paintings. Started around 1495–96, it represents the scene of the Last Supper of Jesus with his apostles, as it is told in the Gospel of John, 13:21. Leonardo has depicted the consternation that occurred among the Twelve Apostles when Jesus announced that one of them would betray him. Due to the methods used, a variety of environmental factors, and intentional damage, little of the original painting remains today despite numerous restoration attempts, the last being completed in 1999.
Leonardo, as a painter, favoured oil painting which allows the artist to work slowly and make changes with ease. Fresco painting does not facilitate either of these objectives. Leonardo also sought a greater luminosity and intensity of light and shade than could be achieved with fresco. Instead of painting with water-soluble paints onto wet plaster, laid freshly each day in sections, Leonardo painted The Last Supper on a wall sealed with a double layer of gesso, pitch, and mastic.
It portrays the reaction given by each apostle when Jesus said one of them would betray him. All twelve apostles have different reactions to the news, with various degrees of anger and shock. From left to right, according to the apostles’ heads: Bartholomew, James, son of Alphaeus, and Andrew form a group of three; all are surprised, Judas Iscariot, Peter, and John form another group of three. Judas is wearing red, blue, and green and is in shadow, looking withdrawn and taken aback by the sudden revelation of his plan. He is clutching a small bag, perhaps signifying the silver given to him as payment to betray Jesus, or perhaps a reference to his role as a treasurer. He is also tipping over the salt cellar, which may be related to the near-Eastern expression to “betray the salt” meaning to betray one’s master. He is the only person to have his elbow on the table and his head is also vertically the lowest of anyone in the painting. Peter wears an expression of anger and appears to be holding a knife, foreshadowing his violent reaction. Peter is leaning towards John and touching him on the shoulder, in reference to John’s Gospel where he signals the “beloved disciple” to ask Jesus who is to betray him. The youngest apostle, John, appears to swoon and lean towards Peter, Jesus, Thomas, James the Greater, and Philip are the next group of three. Thomas is clearly upset; the raised index finger foreshadows his incredulity about the Resurrection. James the Greater looks stunned, with his arms in the air. Meanwhile, Philip appears to be requesting some explanation, Matthew, Jude Thaddeus, and Simon the Zealot are the final group of three. Both Thaddeus and Matthew are turned toward Simon, perhaps to find out if he has any answer to their initial questions.
A study of the head of Christ by Leonardo
Jesus is predicting that his betrayer will take the bread at the same time he does to
The Last Supper, c. 1520, Andrea Solari, oil on canvas, in the Leonardo da Vinci Museum, Tongerlo Abbey
The masons filled the walls with moisture-retaining rubble. The painting was done on a thin exterior wall, so the effects of humidity were felt keenly, and the paint failed to properly adhere to it. Soon after the painting was completed, it began to deteriorate. By 1556, it was described as reduced to a “muddle of blots”. In 1652, a doorway was cut through the (then unrecognizable) painting, and later bricked up; In 1768, a curtain was hung over the painting intended for its protection; the curtain instead trapped moisture on the surface, and whenever it was pulled back, it scratched the flaking paint.
A first restoration was attempted in 1726 when missing sections were painted with oil paint and then varnished the whole mural. This repair did not last well and another restoration was attempted in 1770 when stripped off Bellotti’s work and then largely repainted the painting. In 1796, French revolutionary anti-clerical troops used the refectory as an armoury and stable; they threw stones at the painting and climbed ladders to scratch out the Apostles’ eyes. In 1800, the room was flooded with two feet of water after a heavy rainstorm. The refectory was used as a prison. Removal was attempted but the centre section was badly damaged before realizing that it was not a fresco. Damaged sections were attached with glue.
From 1978 to 1999, a major restoration project stabilized the painting and reversed the damage caused by dirt and pollution. The eighteenth- and nineteenth-century restoration attempts were also reversed. The refectory was converted to a sealed, climate-controlled environment, which meant bricking up the windows. Some areas were deemed unrestorable and re-painted using watercolour in subdued colours intended to indicate they were not original works.
Visitors are required to book ahead and can only stay for 15 minutes. 15€
Detail of the “beloved disciple” to Jesus’s right, is identified by art historians as the apostle John but speculated in the 2003 book The Da Vinci Code and similar works to be Mary Magdalene.
PWC Tower (Libeskind Tower). The PricewaterhouseCoopers Tower designed by Studio Libeskind is one of three iconic commercial high-rise buildings. It draws on the sphere for inspiration and slopes inward towards its counterparts and the central park below. PWC is a single tenant with 3,000 professionals, 500 staff, and four service lines for customers. The curved tower’s facade is made of sustainable, state-of-the-art glass, that will reflect the public space below and vistas around. Construction was from 2016 to 2020.
Also called Il Curvo (The Curved One), it is 175 m (574 ft) with 28 floors.
Allianz Tower is a fifty-floor, 209-metre-tall (686 ft) skyscraper, the tallest building in Italy with a broadcast antenna. It is composed of eight modules on six floors. The façade of the triple-glass unit is slightly curved to the outside. The building serves as the headquarters of the Allianz Group and the Italian parent company Allianz.
Generali Tower (lo Storto, “the Twisted One”) was completed in 2017 at a height of 191.5 m (628 ft) with 44 floors. The geometry of the building is that of a warping shape, where both the floor’s dimension and their orientation vary along the tower axis. The building hosts offices of Assicurazioni Generali, the third-largest insurance group in the world by revenue.
CityLife is a residential, commercial and business district with 20 exhibition halls. It involves three skyscrapers, a large shopping district, a luxury residential area with 1,300 apartments, 50% green spaces and underground parking space for around 7,000 vehicles. CityLife is the largest car-free area in Milan and one of the biggest in Europe.
I slept at a freeway-side rest area and saw the remaining places in Lombardy the next day.
Church of St Julius. This small church has ornate ceilings, a nice mosaic of Jesus, and polychromes.
Lake Orta is west of Lake Maggiore. Its scenery is characteristically Italian, while San Giulio island has some picturesque buildings, and takes its name from the local saint, who lived in the 4th century. Located around the lake are Orta San Giulio, built on a peninsula projecting from the east shore of the lake, Omegna at its northern extremity, Pettenasco to the east, and Pella to the west.
It is supposed that the lake is the remnant of a much larger sheet of water by which originally the waters of the Toce flowed south towards Novara. As the glaciers retreated the waters flowing from them diminished, and were gradually diverted into Lake Maggiore. The inaugural European Rowing Championships were held on Lake Orta in 1893.
Frequent ferry service connects towns and villages around the lake.
Basilica di San Giulio is a Roman Catholic church on the small Isola San Giulio in the center of Lake Orta, According to tradition, it was the hundredth, and last, church founded by Julius of Novara and his brother Julian, both natives of Aegina in Greece, who dedicated their later years to the evangelization of the area around Lake Orta. Legend has it that around the year 390, the saint reached the island sailing on his cloak, and then freed it from dragons (symbols of paganism); after the defeat of the monsters, he built a small church devoted to the Twelve Apostles.
Archaeological excavations inside the church found traces of an ancient basilica (5th to 6th century). Around a century later a new church was built, bigger and correctly oriented, still with a single apse. The modern church was constructed in the 12th century, is Romanesque, with a nave and two aisles.
Inside there is a precious 12th-century Romanesque ambon (sculpted in green serpentine marble) supported by four more ancient columns.
The Baroque look is from frescos representing the Trinity, the Ascent and glory of Saint Julius with Elijah, Demetrius, Philibert of Jumièges and Audenzio, all buried in the church together with the patron saint.
On the walls of the aisles, there are many frescos from the second half of the 14th century and the early 16th century.
Catch a boat from in front of the main square in the town.
Santuario di Sant Euseo. Climb several steps to the 16th-century church fronted by 6 columns. The paint was chipped and peeling. Inside it is Baroque with frescoes. This was a long way out of the way, but I had a lovely nap under a shady tree in front.
