We arrived in Milan about 9:30  AM on Tuesday, May 13th.  The hotel we chose, the Berna, is within walking distance of the train and subway stations.  We were very tired, as we didn’t sleep much on the plane overnight, but after getting settled in our hotel, we decided to take the subway to the city center.  The subway station is an adventure, as the routes are poorly marked, so we wandered around a bit before finding our way.  We found that with Rick Steves’ Italy 2008 guidebook and the help of some kind Italians, you can find your way around a new city pretty quickly.  We had our first gelato near the Duomo and have decided that we could try two flavors a day and still not exhaust all the possibilities while we are in Italy.  We returned to our hotel and had pizza and beer for dinner in an outdoor cafe.

We had a good night’s sleep and got an early start for a full day of sightseeing on Wednesday. We began with a city tour, where we saw the Sforza Castle, the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie (the Last Supper), the La Scala Opera House and the Galleria shopping center. The Last Supper was most impressive. They allow 25 people max. in the room for 15 minutes. No photography of any kind is allowed.  In 1999 a 21 year restoration of the painting was completed. They removed 500 years of touch-ups.  The restored painting is pale but is thought to accurately represent what da Vinci first painted.  After the tour, we had lunch in a restaurant on the top floor of a shopping center that overlooks the Duomo.  We then took the lift to the roof of the Duomo where we had some amazing views of its hundreds of statues and spires.  We then set off to find Leonardo’s Horse, which is by a racetrack some distance from the city center.  The subway was a challenge again, as we were headed off on another route.  We had a long walk after leaving the subway station, but we did find the horse!  It is actually a reconstruction of da Vinci’s original, as the French used it for target practice in 1499 and ruined it.  It is an enormous statue, as you can see by how small Jay looks standing by it.  We went back to the city center where we had salad, pasta and wine at an outdoor cafe.  We then took the subway home.  We wore our pedometers today and walked 8.33 miles (19,554 steps for Barbara). Yikes!  Found out at our hotel a while ago that a bidet works great for soaking tired feet.