Milan, Italy

Apparently it's been a while since I've posted. I had a lot to get done before I left for Italy, and then I was in Italy for almost a week, so I have some catching up to do.

Italy was great! The buildings were beautiful (not even just the "special" buildings), the food was great, and the company was fantastic. Many of my friends and colleagues were at the conference as well, and most of us managed to find rooms at the same hotel, making it easy to go out to dinner and spend time together. The stress I was under to finish up several things before leaving was gone shortly after I left, and I felt so much better after returning.

Sadly, there were no tickets left for the opera at La Scala. It would have been fantastic if we could have gone, especially given the opera they were performing while we were in town:

But we did get to tour the opera house and that was amazing in itself. You could just imagine the women in their opera gowns with their opera glasses, spying on the comings and goings in the boxes across the theater from their own.

By far, the vast majority of my photos feature Il Duomo, the cathedral.



I had just gotten a new pocket-sized camera before leaving, and I'm still amazed at the level of detail it was able to capture:


I can't even imagine how many people it took to carve all that marble...

Other fun shots of Milan include this arch:

And the medieval castle of the ruling family, where Leonardo da Vinci worked for many years:

A statue of the man himself:

The best thing I saw during the entire trip was da Vinci's masterpiece, The Last Supper. I was traveling with two colleagues from my institution, and the three of us took a tour of Milan the afternoon we arrived. The tour was the only way to see the painting since the viewing slots were sold out and the number of people allowed to view the painting each day is strictly limited. The dining room at the monastery where the painting resides is now encased in a humidity-controlled room to slow down its deterioration as much as possible. It was truly amazing, but no pictures are allowed, so I can't share my experience here other than to say it was the highlight of my trip, and if you find yourself planning to go to Milan, make reservations to see the painting as far in advance as you possibly can.

Just to prove that I was behind the camera, here's a shot of me spinning on my heel on the Torino Bull for good luck:


And here's the bull himself, with the mark of many tourists left behind:The particular part of his anatomy that is now worn away through the spinning of countless heels apparently has to do with the original meaning of the spinning, which was to ensure a safe pregnancy. Luckily, since I'm not pregnant and not planning on it any time soon, the meaning has now changed to just generic good luck. :)

That's probably enough photos for now. I have some catching up to do with other posts too, so I should be posting fairly often in the near future.