We knew we wanted to see Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper while in Milan, Italy. But we also knew that you needed to get tickets in advance – sometimes weeks in advance! We didn’t plan far enough ahead and waited until we arrived in Milan to look into tickets. Oops! We went online to buy our tickets but it was saying they weren’t available for our dates. So we decided to take James and walk over to the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie and see if we could buy tickets in person and we would come back without James at the ticket time.
On the way to the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, we walked through Parco Sempione. They have several fenced dog park areas but we enjoyed just wandering through the regular park with James. We also walked through Castello Sforzesco and took a selfie:
A rare portrait of the three of us (James wasn’t interesting in looking at the camera – he wanted to run and play!):
Once at the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, we were able to buy tickets – for the same day! They had a few available for right away, but we had to take James back to the house first. So we bought tickets for that afternoon instead.
Once we dropped James off we headed back to see The Last Supper. Because of the techniques and materials Leonardo used, the painting started deteriorating as early as 1517. It has suffered from damage several times through the centuries and at one point, a door was cut into the bottom of the painting! It also suffered damage during World War II. Recently, the refectory was rebuilt as a sealed, temperature and humidity-controlled room. So when you first arrive at the convent, you proceed into a sealed room. No more than 30 people can visit at one time and you all have to wait in this sealed room for 15 minutes. There is a tour guide and they talk about the painting while you wait to be dehumidified 🙂
Then when you enter the refectory go view The Last Supper, you can only stay for 15 minutes.
It was pretty incredible. I was surprised at how well the painting was restored. I expected it to be faded and hard to see any details.
The Last Supper (you can really see where the door was cut into the bottom of the painting):
View of The Last Supper from the other end of the refectory:
Chris sitting and looking at The Last Supper:
