← All articles · Italy · 16 March 2016

Milan, Italy: Ten timed minutes in front of Leonardo's Last Supper

Milan in March 2016: the Duomo by day and floodlit at night, the Galleria, Sforza Castle, ten minutes with the Last Supper, and pizza at a pavement table.

One day in Milan, in March 2016, on the way down through Italy. We'd come off the mountains and the change was abrupt: from snow and red trains to trams, tailoring and a cathedral that looks like it was grown rather than built.

The Duomo

It's the sort of building that doesn't photograph properly. Every spire has another spire behind it, and there are apparently a few thousand statues up there that nobody at ground level will ever see.

Inga standing in Piazza del Duomo in a fur collared coat with the white marble front and spires of Milan Cathedral behind her under grey cloud — Milan Cathedral first thing, before the square filled up.

An enormous stained glass window inside Milan Cathedral, divided into hundreds of small painted panels glowing against the dark stone — Inside, one window. Hundreds of panels, and it's one of many.

An ornate underground chapel with marble columns, a carved plaster ceiling and a chequered marble floor, lit warm gold — Down the stairs, a chapel of marble columns and chequered floor that almost nobody bothers with.

The floodlit white marble front of Milan Cathedral at night, its spires lit against a black sky, with people crossing the empty square — Same building, last thing at night. Worth walking back for.

The Galleria and the castle

Inside the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, a glass roofed shopping arcade with a mosaic floor and shoppers crossing beneath the dome — The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II: glass roof, mosaic floor, and the shops that go with both. A 360 photo: drag to look in any direction.

The brick outer wall and dry grass moat of Sforza Castle in Milan, with visitors walking along the path beside it — Sforza Castle from the moat, which these days is a very tidy strip of grass. A 360 photo: drag to look in any direction.

The vast inner courtyard of Sforza Castle, ringed by arcaded brick and stone ranges, with Inga standing in the middle of the gravel — The inner courtyard. It's big enough that you can stand in the middle and be completely alone in it. A 360 photo: drag to look in any direction.

A carved profile set into a plain wall, with the Sforza name still legible round the edge.

Milan at street level

Between the sights, the city is mostly trams and scooters, and everyone on both looks better dressed than us.

A vintage cream and orange Milan tram coming down a street lined with parked cars and tall apartment buildings — The old cream and orange trams are still doing the daily work, not just the tourist run.

A woman in a helmet and black coat riding a red Vespa scooter with a clear windshield and a leg cover along a cobbled street with tram rails — Red scooter, windshield, leg blanket, total composure over the tram rails.

Ten minutes with the Last Supper

You book a slot, you go through a set of airlock doors in small groups, and then you get a strictly timed spell in a bare refectory with the most famous dinner in art on one wall.

Inga and Dileep taking a selfie outside the brick apse and dome of Santa Maria delle Grazie church in Milan — Santa Maria delle Grazie from the back, waiting for our slot.

Inga and Dileep standing in the refectory below Leonardo's Last Supper mural, which covers the whole end wall above them — Leonardo's Last Supper, faded and patched and still holding the whole room.

Dileep standing in front of a huge crowded Crucifixion fresco covering the opposite wall of the refectory, with visitors looking at it — Turn around and there's an equally enormous Crucifixion on the opposite wall. Nobody looks at it, which feels a bit rough.

Lunch, eventually

A pavement restaurant table with red checked cloth, two plates and a pizza, under an awning looking out at a Milan street corner — Red checked cloth, a pizza each, and the street corner going about its business. A 360 photo: drag to look in any direction.

Inga and Dileep eating pizza and salad at a pavement table with a red checked cloth, a cyclist passing on the street outside — Late lunch, cyclist for scale, and nobody rushing us.

We'd reached Milan off the mountain railway from Tirano and St. Moritz. From here the train went south, to Rome, Vatican City and a boat out to Capri.