Checkout is at noon, so I had my breakfast, then took the subway to see a church and museum I reviewed online not far from Castello. My three-day transit pass no longer worked, so I looked online and saw that I could use my debit card and tried to do that without success (the lines were so long to buy a ticket from the machines). I did not get upset, just a bit frustrated, stepped aside and watched, only to see that I was putting the card at the wrong reader – did it right and got on the train. The church is Chiesa di San Maurizio al Monastero Maggiore – associated and next to it is the Milano Museo Archeologico.
San Maurizio is an early Christian church begun in 1503, rebuilt in the sixteenth century and formerly the seat of the most important female monastery (I never knew there was such a thing) in the city belonging to the Benedictine order. It is decorated with a vast number of frescoes from the Leonardo da Vinci school and is also known as the "Sistine Chapel" of Milano. They are bright and colorful as if done yesterday. The monastery partially reused some Roman buildings along with a polygonal tower that was part of Milano’s ancient walls, and another square one which was originally part of the Roman circus. The towers were bombed during WWII and rebuilt as they were using the bricks still on site. There is a great diorama of ancient Milano showing the walls and towers.
Photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/Q6KoWx1N2LaSiZro6
My train was at 13:10 (1:10pm) and it was getting a bit late, so I took the subway back to the hotel (checkout was not until 12n), finished packing and headed across the street to the station. I bought a sandwich for the train, and was sitting in business class as I had requested from Salone (since I wasn’t flying to the show), and overheard a gentleman across from me speaking British English. The woman sitting across from me was napping and her feet were in my space, so I popped across the aisle to a seat next to the gentlemen with an open seat across from me. As the train was pulling into Reggio Emilia’s Calatrava station, I engaged him by saying “Calatrava did a wonderful design.” He is an architect and furniture designer, was at Salone also, and it turns out he designed one of the few pieces that I saw that I liked. He (Nigel Coates) and his partner got out of London in July 2021 (as soon as they could) and moved to their place in Italy where they have been ever since, and seems like they may live there permanently.
Train was on time, got into Firenze Santa Maria Novella on time, I popped onto a train to Campo di Marte, called Nan to see if she was home to stop by and say hi, but no answer. Headed on home (hot in Firenze) relaxed, wrote, did laundry, had a cocktail and will go to my favorite place – OK Bar – for dinner.
San Maurizio is an early Christian church begun in 1503, rebuilt in the sixteenth century and formerly the seat of the most important female monastery (I never knew there was such a thing) in the city belonging to the Benedictine order. It is decorated with a vast number of frescoes from the Leonardo da Vinci school and is also known as the "Sistine Chapel" of Milano. They are bright and colorful as if done yesterday. The monastery partially reused some Roman buildings along with a polygonal tower that was part of Milano’s ancient walls, and another square one which was originally part of the Roman circus. The towers were bombed during WWII and rebuilt as they were using the bricks still on site. There is a great diorama of ancient Milano showing the walls and towers.
Photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/Q6KoWx1N2LaSiZro6
My train was at 13:10 (1:10pm) and it was getting a bit late, so I took the subway back to the hotel (checkout was not until 12n), finished packing and headed across the street to the station. I bought a sandwich for the train, and was sitting in business class as I had requested from Salone (since I wasn’t flying to the show), and overheard a gentleman across from me speaking British English. The woman sitting across from me was napping and her feet were in my space, so I popped across the aisle to a seat next to the gentlemen with an open seat across from me. As the train was pulling into Reggio Emilia’s Calatrava station, I engaged him by saying “Calatrava did a wonderful design.” He is an architect and furniture designer, was at Salone also, and it turns out he designed one of the few pieces that I saw that I liked. He (Nigel Coates) and his partner got out of London in July 2021 (as soon as they could) and moved to their place in Italy where they have been ever since, and seems like they may live there permanently.
Train was on time, got into Firenze Santa Maria Novella on time, I popped onto a train to Campo di Marte, called Nan to see if she was home to stop by and say hi, but no answer. Headed on home (hot in Firenze) relaxed, wrote, did laundry, had a cocktail and will go to my favorite place – OK Bar – for dinner.