I am so very hacked off with myself after seeing today's photos. They show all the artistry and photojournalistic insight of a busload of tourists having Kodak moments.

All too soon we had to depart Firenze for Milano, again on the mighty Frecciarossa. (And again they didn't announce the platform until the nose was coming down it, and again our carriage was at the far end.) We reached Milano Centrale in style, then transferred to the first Metro train... then things got a little strange trying to find our way with bags to the right platform for the second Metro train. However we got there and found a semi-crowded train already there. We decided to catch the next one, but the one that was there just stood there. And stood there. And stood there. At that point I should have made a call to get on it, but didn't. Eventually it left... and an announcement came over the PA that trains were disrupted and suspended on that line.

We had a tour of Da Vinci's The Last Supper booked for 12:30. (Such as it is; I did end up wondering how similar what we see now is to what was painted.) That is at the Santa Maria delle Grazie, and was to be followed by a walking tour of Milano and climbing up to the roof of the Duomo (cathedral). The plan was to catch the Metro to our hotel, check in, then grab a taxi to the Duomo. However that nice, comfortable time buffer I had planned was evaporating fast.
"What do you think?", I asked one of the other members of our group.
"Gut feeling? I don't think we'll make it."
Screw that. I don't believe in no win situations and I still had one card to play; walking to the hotel. It wouldn't be easy (with luggage) but wouldn't be impossible. Just as I was about to open my mouth... the trains started running again.

We got to the hotel, checked in (one of the two rooms was ready, a room which I only later realised was rather smaller than the one I paid for), dumped our luggage, had the hotel get us a taxi and made it with just enough time to spare to buy a pastry from a shop across the road.

We then did the tour of the church. Did you know that in World War II a bombing raid blew up the church, leaving the wall with The Last Supper on it exposed to the elements? Neither did I. We came that close to losing it.

We then continued on the tour, visiting a deconsecrated and very ornate convent, and later on to one of the world's first shopping centres, the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, which we see here. Built just after the time of the second Italian unification (1861; my people got to that point a couple of thousand years earlier you may recall but it kinda fell apart in the 400's), it was named after the first king of a unified Italia. In the spirit of unification, there are mosaics of the symbols of some of the other Italian cities and regions including my place's SPQR logo, and the bull, symbol of Milan's great industrial rival in the north, Torino (Turin).

There is a superstition that if you spin on the testicles of the bull, it will bring you good luck. In reality I suspect that this was simply a practice some Milanese invented to stick it to their Torinese rivals.

Did I do it as well? Uhhhhmmmm... in my own defence I will only say that I need all the luck I can get to afford to make it back here any time soon.