Starbucks coffee in Milan and Da Vinci Museum

 

This street is connecting with Starbucks, 

There is one big Starbucks in this old building.

Inside, looks like a factory!

This wings sometimes open and sometimes close.

Coffee Beans.

In this store, beans are roasted to use this store also other stores. So far, there are 

12 Starbucks in Italy. Only around Milan.

In Milan there is one huge Da Vinci Museum.

There are several buildings.

It took about more than 3 hours but fun!

Duomo di Milan and Galleria

That was huge Church in Milan,

Inside is gorgeous and very beautiful.

[History]

The Duomo occupies what was the most central site in Roman Mediolanum. The first cathedral, the "new basilica dedicated to St Thecla, was completed by 355 and an adjoining basilica was erected in 836. A fire damaged the cathedral and basilica in 1075.On 20 May 1805, Napoleon Bonaparte, about to be crowned King of Italy, ordered the façade to be finished by Pellicani. He assured that all expenses would fall to the French treasurer and within only seven years, the Cathedral's façade was completed. As a form of thanksgiving, a statue of Napoleon was placed at the top of one of the spires. 

There is one elevator outside, we can go up the top of the roof.

We could see the amazing view from there!

Also out of Duomo, one big museum there, we could see many interesting collections there. 

Next to Duomo is Milan Galleria, it was built by  between 1865 and 1877.

Under the glass roof, there are some hotels restaurants and shops. 

Last supper by Leonardo da Vinci and Sforzesco Castle

In Milano, There is the most famous and popular painting in the small church, "Santa Maria della Grazie." That is "The Last Supper" by da Vinci. He started this work 1495 and took about for three years. It measures 460 cm × 880 cm (180 in × 350 in) and covers an end wall of the dining hall at the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy. Leonardo's patron, Ludovico Sforza ordered this one. Leonardo, as a painter, favoured oil painting, a medium which allows the artist to work slowly and make changes with ease, so he didn't choose Fresco painting, that was used well for the wall painting at that time.

"Santa Maria della Grazie"

We had many chances to see this picture in the book, online, movies or TV before.

However when we saw this real one, we're really impressed and had a big surprising shock. Including me, some people said "Oh.....", yes it was an amazing work!

The Last Supper portrays the reaction given by each apostle when Jesus said one of them would betray him. In common with other depictions of the Last Supper from this period, Leonardo seats the diners on one side of the table, so that none of them has his back to the viewer. Most previous depictions excluded Judas by placing him alone on the opposite side of the table from the other eleven disciples and Jesus, or placing halos around all the disciples except Judas.

It was said that spilling salt is an evil omen, You can see Judas spilled the salt.

Da Vinci drew this picture with a mixed technique of tempera painting and oil painting using eggs. With this technique, the paint does not settle on the white lead underneath. Also, the place where it was drawn was the dining room of the monastery, and they had troubled by the humidity. As a result, it is said that the paint began to peel off only about 20 years after completion and was covered with black mold.

From 1978 to 1999, Pinin Brambilla Barcilon guided a major restoration project which undertook to stabilize the painting, and reverse the damage caused by dirt and pollution. So now we can see the good condition one.

Also the church is beautiful and calm,

They have a beautiful yard in the middle.

Now only online ticket is available.

The Sforzesco Castle was very closet to church. It's very huge sized castle and now some museums.

It was built in the 15th century by Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan, on the remnants of a 14th-century fortification. Later renovated and enlarged, in the 16th and 17th centuries it was one of the largest citadels in Europe. Extensively rebuilt by Luca Beltrami in 1891–1905, it now houses several of the city's museums and art collections.

There are many arts and paintings there.

We enjoyed so much.

Inside this area, there are some bar, we sit down and had cappuccino.

The front of this castle, there is one beautiful fountain on the street.

Aquarium, Museums and Christmas time

Genova aquarium is front of the ocean and there are many fish and sea creature. You can buy tickets at the tickets office (front of the aquarium) or online. Online is easy and you can skip the line.

Aquarium land area is 33,000 square feet and it was built at 1992 for Genova Expo.

The aquarium includes 70 tanks containing a total of 6,000,000 liters (1,300,000 imp gal; 1,600,000 U.S. gal), and almost 10,000 meters (33,000 ft) of exhibit space. The tanks host 12.000 animals of 400 different species.

It took about two hours for everything, inside there are a small bar also a restaurant. If you want to have drink or snack, you can get there and take a rest.

I want to tell you about some museums at Genova.

One is the Ocean Museum. It is very big building and a lot of exhibits.

The museum's name is "Galata Museo del Mare". This museum opened 2004, 

also  it is the largest museum of its kind in the Mediterranean area and one of the most modern in Italy. 

These are Marco Polo(1254-1324)'s original hand writing papers. He visited several countries by ship.

After that he came back to Venice and he joined army and fought to Genova's army. At that time he was in jail because he was a POW. It is said that he wrote a book about his history there.

Doge's Palace is one nice museums too, this is next to " Piazza de Ferrari", a big fountain. When we visited there, "Escher" exhibited. 

Before we didn't know about him well, but it was a good chance to know about him.

There were lots of paintings, prints and many descriptions. 

So we could see his many works and know about him. 

This is original place,

He sketched right and left opposite,

                                   This is the final work! Fantastic!!!

Close to the central city, There is one beautiful park, the name is 
"Villetta Di Negro". Lots of green and beautiful water fall, also we can see

Genova city from there.

At Christmas, there is fantastic illumination around "Piazza de Ferrari".