Friday, February 9, 2018

A Milano Oggi Per Un Buon Pranzo, Un Grande Museo e Una Chiesa Incredibile!


Venerdì, 9 Febbraio, 2018

After spending a couple of hours in the morning working on the blog and other social media issues again at the Le Due Isole Bar as the WiFi at the Villa Skorpion was still out, I boarded the train to Milano once again.

You know the drill, one museum and one church per day.

But which ones this time?

I checked my Lonely Planet and Rick Steves tour books while on the 40 minute ride into the Milano Cadorna train station and I quickly formulated a great plan for my museum of choice but not for a church.

Divine improvisation would need to be called upon I believed.

On the walk to the Museum-of-the-Day I stumbled upon . . .

A store specializing in all
things Sicilian

Lots and . . .

. . . lots of heart shaped candies

I really can't understand why they are still trying to sell so much of this type of sweets when Ground Hog Day was a week ago.

Lots of sweets but, somehow,
I was strong

Still, it was about 1:00 p.m. and I was getting hungry but I was afraid of another Milano tourist trap sting like the one that got me a few weeks ago, the infamous . . .
Day of the Nine Euro Medium Coke Zero

Undaunted I started searching for a place to sit down and eat pranzo, a.k.a., lunch.

Well this looked promising . . .

It looked good inside . . .

I went for it!

A good meal consisting of lasagna alla Bolognese, a chicken cutlet and some amazing potatoes plus a bottle water and a cafĂ© all for only 10 Euros.

It was all quite good although the lasagna paled in comparison to the one Nency served a few weeks ago at Casa Petrillo.

Still, it was a good meal. 

Just say NO . . .

. . . OFTEN!

An old gate that, to the left, housed . . .

The Martyrs and Torture Museum

It was not open and it was not my museum of choice today but it will be sometime soon I'm sure.

Same gate from the other side

Nice Home

Finally I arrived at the museum

If you can't read all of this sign, here is another look . . .

The Leonardo da Vinci National
Science and Technology Museum

WOW! This museum had a little bit of everything including exhibits on space exploration, mining, radio, television, old musical instruments, computers, boats, planes, trains and automobiles.

A 1932 Alfa Romeo

Now THAT was "fake news"

Orson Welles' famous Halloween eve broadcast in 1938 of the H.G. Wells Martian invasion novel The War of the Worlds was the kickoff to an exhibit on Mars exploration.

David Bowie's "Rocket Man" lyrics
also made the Mars exhibit cut

La Vittoria del Piave
Arrigo Minenbi 1917

Leonardo da Vinci's
Vetruvian Man

A Last Supper

Not THE Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci, this one was painted by Giovan Mauro della Rovere, a.k.a., Fiammenghino, in 1626 A.D.

Violin Workshop

One of Leonardo's flying machines

And one of da Vinci's boat designs

"I'm Batman!"

Copernicus view of the heavens
in globe form

Cut away model of Rome's Pantheon

To date, still my favorite building in the known universe.

The grounds of the museum is housed
in a structure built in the 16th-century
to be a monastery

An Apothecary

An Electric Oven?

From 1957, Italy's first submarine,
the Sottomarino Enrico Toti

Lots of old trains at the museum

Grandsons Kevin and Jacob would have gone crazy in this building.

The Coat of Arms of Milano

On a HUGE train

BIG wheels for a . . .

. . . BIGGER train!

I liked the tail art on this . . .

. . . 1959 Fiat jet plane

Boats, they had boats!

"Fire on the up-roll!"

A 1943 Macchi MC 205 V
Italian fighter

Again, nice tail art

Bi-planes are always of interest

I think it's Italian

Small but awesome tri-plane

An Anti-Aircraft Gun

"TURBINES TO SPEED!"

Classy Museum Courtyard

The museum was a good one, especially since it was, for once not about fat baby Jesus paintings and the like.

Not that I don't love the fat baby Jesus.

Now as for that elusive church . . .

The Basilica di San Vittore al Corpo

This Basilica was literally right next to the museum as I exited, it looked so plain on the outside but a church is a church . . .

. . . or is it?

The Holy Water font was exceptional and then I . . .

. . . looked UP!

OMG!

Literally!

Amazing artwork
everywhere I looked

A wonderful blue cupola

Above the Main Altar

On the center aisle leading to
the Main Altar

The ornate choir

I was speechless, this is the second Milano church, San Maurizio was the other one, that I have entered in the last three weeks that looked so blah on the exterior but blew me away once inside.

I thought of the Duomo in Florence that is just the opposite of these two Milanese masterpieces, exquisite on the outside but generally a dud on the inside.

I thought that I'd had a good day, then . . . 

I KNEW IT, ELVIS IS
ALIVE!

And he'll be playing in Milano next month!

A good day just became GREAT!

Stay tuned Paul and Mike . . .

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