The Last Supper & Milan’s Hidden Gems

September 11, 2018

Callie, Witten, and Mom Outside Santa Maria della Grazie

Today ended up being not nearly as packed as I had planned, but it was still a lot of fun. Witten woke up around 2:30 a.m., and didn’t go back down until around 5:00 a.m., which left Kati and me both struggling mightily, and led to a late start. That was alright though because my dad and Callie both slept in as well. We started our day in the Piazza del Duomo, where we met our TickItaly tour guide. I don’t generally like group tours, but this was the only way that I could get tickets to the Last Supper, so it was a necessary evil. It was, however, pretty interesting and I actually learned a decent bit over the course of our two-hour tour through the hidden gems of Milan.

Our first stop was at Santa Maria presso San Satiro (“Saint Mary at Saint Satiro”). In the 15th century, it was a very small church that unexpectedly became the site of a miracle. An old man gambled his life savings away and, out of frustration, struck a mosaic of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus with a knife - right on Jesus’s neck, which started dripping blood. People started flocking to the church, so a young, unknown artist named Bramante was commissioned to build a church more fitting to house such a miracle. The problem was that the location of the miracle was in an already-crowded part of Milan. Bramante’s brilliant solution was to construct the church with an optical illusion that makes the church look about twice as long as it actually is. You can only tell that the church is small when you get close to the altar.

Next, we meandered through the banking district of Milan and stopped at the Italian stock exchange. Mussolini built the monolithic building right on the remains of an old Roman amphitheater. As you would expect, the stock exchange isn’t actually used anymore because everything is done by computer, so they rent out the floor of the exchange for exhibitions now. Right in front of the stock exchange is a really odd sculpture, created by Mauricio Catellan. It’s a giant middle finger. There’s some story about how it means “love,” but I don’t really attribute much validity to that. It’s just Catellan trying to do something provocative. The Milanese are a bit foolish about it all. They hate the sculpture, but when Catellan suggested that he could move it to Rome, they worked themselves up into a tizzy because all modern Italian art needs to be in Milan.

Our next stop was my favorite part of the day - San Maurizio al Monastero Maggiore. Locally, it’s known as the “Sistine Chapel of Milan because virtually the entire inside of the church is decorated with frescoes. They’re really interesting when viewed as a whole because you can see a distinct shift in Bernardo Luini’s style and influences. Though most churches are painted from top to bottom, Luini painted the bottom set of panels first. We know this because Luini met Raphael later in his life and was greatly influenced by his work. The characters, softness, and landscapes in the top panels that Luini painted are very reminiscent of Raphael, and Luini even replicated three of Raphael’s apostles in a painting in the back of the church, which was reserved for the nuns. It was so stunning that Kati said she almost cried when she walked in.

Finally, we finished up our tour at Santa Maria della Grazie, which houses Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper. Even though I’ve seen the Last Supper before, it’s still really impressive. My parents were both surprised (as was I the first time) by the scales of the painting. It’s quite literally an entire wall. What I found most interesting was what our tour guide (Alessandra) told us about da Vinci’s technique. There’s no question that the wall that the Last Supper is painted on was not conducive to a fresco, which is why the original painting started to deteriorate substantially after just 21 years. What I didn’t know - but should have deducted - is that da Vinci knew before he started that he wasn’t using the right technique, but did it anyway as an experiment. I also thought it was interesting that, after he finished the Last Supper, he was asked to paint over the crucifixion painted on the opposite wall, but declined to do so out of respect for the other artist. On our way out of Santa Maria della Grazie, a little Italian kid playing soccer in the piazza came up to me and and started singing the AC Milan fight song (because I was wearing my jersey).

Our tour ended around 12:30, so we headed over to the Peck Emporium for lunch. I can’t stress how impressive the Peck Emporium was. It opened its doors in 1883, and has steadily expanded since then. It now spans three floors, has a restaurant on the second floor, a wine cellar in the basement, and everything you could possibly want to eat in between. They have 3,200 different types of parmigannino cheese! There’s also a hell of a deli, a bakery, and they sell all sorts of ready-made meals and fresh pasta. Lunch was probably one of the best meals we’ve had over here. Kati got a burrata ravioli in an anchovies sauce, I got a spaghetti with a local sausage, my mom got spinach and ricotta ravioli, and Callie got tagliatelle with a pesto sauce. They were all fantastic, as were the burrata and tomato shooters they brought out as an amuse bouche.

The long days and lack of sleep have been weighing on all of us, so we went back to the hotel to put Witten down for a nap and rest (we decided to forego our planned visit to the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana). Kati, my mom, and I grabbed a quick drink on the rooftop terrace before Kati retired for a nap and I went on an excursion to find a grocery store. I had planned to walk to one that I found 0.7 miles away, but ran right into one two blocks away from the hotel instead, which had everything that we needed. I got back and relaxed up on the rooftop with my mom for a bit, then she went down to rest and my dad came up. It was a really nice, low-key afternoon.

San Bernardino alle Ossa

Witten and Kati woke up around 5:00, so we set out to make the most of the rest of our day. First, we stopped in at one of my favorite sights in Milan - San Bernardino alle Ossa. It’s a small ossuary decorated with human bones (mostly skulls and femurs). When I was here 12 years ago, it took me a few months to find this church (in the pre-smart phone days). When I finally did, I was the only non-local there and I got an odd look when I walked in. Now, however, it’s on the list of tourist attractions that many people go to, and there’s someone at the door soliciting mandatory donations to the church. It’s a bit unfortunate.

The last stop on our itinerary for the day, however, was still well off the beaten path for tourists. We caught the Metro out to Lambrate to get some beer. During my last week in Italy back in 2006, my friends and I found a hole-in-the-wall brewery called Birrifico Lambrate. It was incredible. The whole bar was old, battered wood, with warm yellow lighting, and a sign above the bar that reads, “There are no strangers, just friends that you haven’t met yet.” As my two friends and I sat at the bar drinking beer, talking to the bartender, a slew of locals came in to pick up beer for their houses. Some brought 1.5L water bottles, others brought pails. Whatever the vessel, the bartender would always fill it up for them. When we finally made it out there, I was pleasantly surprised to find that nothing had changed, except the addition of a small sign above the bar saying, “Make Lambrate Great Again.” My dad was thrilled that they sold a standard Pilsner, and Callie found a sour IPA that she liked alright.

After a beer at the brewery, we went to check out Birrifico Lambrate’s new(ish) brewpub, just 0.4 miles away. It was equally great. We all had a second round of beers - I got an outstanding barleywine, and got Kati an imperial smoked milk stout. We also engorged ourselves on apperativo before heading back to the hotel to put Witten down (and praying that she would actually sleep through the night). After getting her down, my dad and Callie went out hunting for a kebap shop near the Duomo (which they never found because it doesn’t exist), and Kati and I went up to grab a nice dinner at the rooftop restaurant. All-in-all, it was a wonderful day and a really pleasant evening.