Milano in one day

You can't do Milan in one day but I only had one day so I tried to fill it. I had the guide books and the TI info and the maps. They all said the same thing-If you want to see Da Vincìs The Last Supper you gotta book a viewing time 4-6 weeks in advance. Not if you travel way off season you don't! I got out of the hostel too early for most of the museums and such that I wanted to visit. TLS opens earlier than the others and I decided to just stop by to see if there were any cancellations. I had to wait all of two minutes and then I walked right in. Like my visit with the Mona Lisa, there were only dozen or so of us joining the others for dinner. I had the 20 minute audio guide. It's like The Last Supper for Dummies kind of thing. Still, after having read the Da Vinci Code (I have an illustrated version) I cannot look at that famous fresco and NOT see a female sitting to Christ's right.

From there it was onto the castle which is home to at least five museum/exhibits. I didn't get to the castle history, or maybe I did but it was buried in all the other culture and info I pummelled myself with that day. I do remember that one of the featured works in there is an unfinished Pieta by Michaelangelo.

After the castle/museum, I had planned to visit the Pinoteca, another large art collection but I was approaching burnout on the cultural aspect of Milan so I headed to the aquarium. I said I didn't want t do them but this one was free and was more a bunch of a really big home aquariums rather than the sea world types with mammals and such. Then I et.

I think I did make a visit the Pinoteca and maybe that's where I saw the Michaelangelo. The day is kind of a blur. I did make it to the catherdral, The Duomo. It's massive! As I arrived late in the day, the climb to the top was closed so I didn't get to do that. And as I exited the catherdral, there was some loud chanting emanating from . . .well, I'm not quite sure where it was coming from but the riot police seemed to know so I decided to stroll down Dante Street, through all of the Christmas booths set up and then made my way back to the hostel.

From Milan it was a short trip to Bergamo. I had time after I arrived to settle in at the hostel and then a short bus ride to the Citta Alto which is the old part of town as well as the high part of the town. It has the cobblestones, narrow streets and the castle. To get to the castle is a ride up the funicular. I'm glad I took the ride up when I did because when it was time to go back down, it broke down so I followed my fellow stuck passengers for the walk back down.

Day two in Bergamo I completed my exploration of the old town including an historical photoexhibit of the city that would have been really great if it had been available in English, too. The historic park with the city history was a good effort but also only in Italian and the civic tower was closed. I still had a good part of the day left to accomplish a mission I had assigned myself and the reason I chose to visit Bergamo in the first place. I wanted to find the statue of Enrico Rastelli, one of the greatest jugglers of all time. Because I was looking for a statue, I didn't find it until the next day after a bit of internet research. Turns out it's not just a statue but part of a memorial monument at the family tomb.

For the rest of the day, I just cruised around the city, did some grocery shopping and tried to get squared away for the next couple of days which I had not booked. And that's kind of where I am now. The great thing about traveling alone is that I can make all the decisions about where to go and what to do. The bad thing about traveling alone is that I have to make all the decisions about where to go and what to do. I never did get anything booked. So I got on the train to Venice this morning, not really knowing where I was going. I didn't even know which towns we were going to go thru. I had sort of made up my mind just to ride the train to Venice and stay in whatever hostel I could find (they have a few of the mixed dorm style hostels there). Then I heard the train announce Padova. What the heck, I thought, I'll do Padova tonight and early tomorrow and make a quick visit to Venice tomorrow afternoon. I think I would have had to come back through Padova on my way to Florence anyway so I'm ahead of the train a bit this time.

Well, that's the reader's digest version on the last few days. I hope one an all of my regular readers are having a nice holiday time. I don't know what the weather is usually like in these parts but other than that rainy day of travel to Milan, it has been cold (but not bitterly so) and sunny! My weather luck has been bordering on phenomenal for this trip!