how to be a traveler

1. Cenacolo Vinciano (Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper) – The painting is housed at Santa Maria delle Grazie (a church). Tickets are hard to come by, but not impossible. The availability on the site changes daily (even hourly!) So the trick is to check back often until you see the time slot you need. That’s exactly what one of my travel companions and I did. And since we were overzealous, we accidentally bought two sets of tickets. And this is where the ticket scalping comes in. Since we couldn’t cancel the order, we decided to get to get there a little earlier to see if we could sell it back at what we paid for (8 Euros each). We knew there would be some poor schmuck thinking they could get tickets the day of, and we used this to our advantage. We managed to sell it back, and that was that! By the way, the place is like Fort Knox. You have to go through multiple locked doorways before you can actually see Leo’s work. And once you get there, there are no pictures allowed of the actual painting. However, there’s a replica of the masterpiece right outside of the locked corridors – so you can take as many photos as you want of that. (On the opposite side of the Last Supper, you’ll also find Giovanni Donato da Montorfano’s The Crucifixion, in case you’re interested).

   

   

Milan is more city-like. It’s probably not one of the first places that pops into mind when you start planning your Italy trip. It’s not as steeped in history as some of its other more popular neighbors. To be honest, If I didn’t fly in/out of Malpensa, I think I could have done without Milan, and maybe used that extra day for Florence or Pisa. So I would say – go, but only if Malpensa is your hub. Otherwise, your time could be more wisely spent in another city.