The Last Supper - March 2, 2006

Ok so I finally made my way to see Leondardo Da Vinci's "The Last Supper". It wasn't easy! First off you have to book tickets weeks in advance so I booked mine for March 2 which was a Thursday (about 2 weeks in advance). The thing with this viewing is that you have to pick a time slot and go in at that time slot. The groups are limited to 25 people per time slot and you can only look at the painting for 15 minutes before they kick you out. I chose the 1PM time slot which would have been my lunch hour and I figured I would have plenty of time to get there and back. Big mistake! In my infinite wisdom I decided to wing it and figure out the location of the church the day of the viewing. As soon as I got off the subway I immediately asked for the right direction. The thing with Milan is that roads are not perpendicular, it's all criss-crossing and diagonal and they can change names after every block! Well I was running for blocks hoping I wouldn't get shut out of my time slot and made it in time (maybe 1 minute late). They gave me the audio tape and I caught up to my tour group and I have to say it was very awe-inspiring. It's much bigger than I thought. The paining is on a refectory wing of "Santa Maria della Grazie". The wing itself is very modern, it has sliding glass doors and the room is climate controlled. The reason for this is that the hall the walls were blown out during WWII but luckily they sandbagged the fresco so it was saved. This is why the wing looks so modern even though the church is hundreds of years old as most of the refectory was rebuilt after the war. The painting is not in the best condition as it is very faded but you can still see the masterful work, the colors and the perspective were really amazing and ahead of its time even though the materials used did not stand up to the test of time. Apparently even Napolean's army had used it for target practice so the fact that it's as well preserved as it is says a lot! Alas, no pictures were allowed inside but I can say now that I've seen the painting with my own eyes.