June 2018 Archives

It's taken a good amount of time to go through my photographs of my long weekend away in Milan in the middle of June. I've been super busy on the project that I am involved in, and I've been spending the long hours doing so much overtime. I am feeling a little burnt out. But, the project finished this week. So, I wanted to include my photographs of Milan that I took for my birthday trip. It was a milestone birthday this year. I've already covered a few things that I got up to, but I didn't include everything so read below for a re-cap on my birthday trip to Milan!

On the first day, I visited Sforza Castle. The castle is a museum, but it was a palace with some defenses and was seiged. I also played a game where I got to become a virtual archer to defend the castle, and you can read about that more in my post. After the castle visit, I had a wander around the gardens at the back of the castle, known as Sempione Park. It is a popular place for the locals, and I saw a lot of beautiful flowers and tortoises and lizards. There are also good views of the castle.

The monument dedicated to peace is constructed on the opposite end of the park and it was finished during the time of Napoleon. At this time, I believe France controlled this part of Italy.

I stayed in the beautiful Grand Hotel Milan (Grand Hotel et de Milan), which is located centrally and a few minutes of walking to the theatre, La Scala. I'd have loved to have seen a show, but I did not get the chance to. I had a beautiful room. The room is the Verdi Presidential Suite (named after opera composer Guiseppe Verdi), which can be reserved as part of a large multi-room suite or separately. The room contains some of the original Verdi furniture and artwork and is designed in period style. Verdi rented the room here in the bustle of Milan life, and he composed his opera 'Othello' here. He also performed on the balcony here. The room was beautiful with high ceilings and a comfortable bed.

The bathroom retained the period features of marble floor, dressing table and large sink. The staff were also friendly and hospitable, so I would stay in this hotel again and recommend it to friends.

On the first evening, I went to the Italian restaurant in the hotel called Don Carlos. The food and wine was delicious. The portions are a bit small but just enough, and I'd rather have excellent quality food than too much. This hit the spot perfectly.

On my second day, I visited the Pinacoteca di Brera Art Gallery and Lunch at Eataly (Milan, Italy) and Milan Cathedral (duomo). On the way from the hotel, we pass La Scala, the theatre. I wish I could have seen something here, but nothing was really on except for the first night and I think we would have been too shattered to enjoy it as we had a long day.

Across the road is a statue dedicated to Leonardo Da Vinci, and across from this is the Galleria, a famous arcade of shops that leads to Plaza Duomo and the cathedral.

Because there was a special event going on at the duomo, we had to return later but spent some time walking around the expensive designer part of Milan. Most of the shops were shut on the Saturday, though.

And we came to the old Roman wall, which was not far from the hotel. This is one of the only pieces of the old wall surviving, and it was reconstructed using part of the old wall with the heads and carving. The details are on both sides of the arches. 

On my actual birthday (day three), the hotel became more amazing. You will see why shortly. This was the day that I had booked to see "The Last Supper" as it was the only time available during my visit. Following that, I went to the "Leonardo da Vinci" Science and Technology Museum. Then, I had a wander down to the canal, Naviglio Grande. This is a picturesque area popular with locals. There are boat trips on the canal, but we just missed one. At the start of the canal is a large gelato shop selling different flavours and options of gelato. I had pistachio, and it tasted delicious.

I loved the canal. It's too bad we could not eat here. We got something just north of the canal because I was tired of walking and had destroyed my feet in Milan.

After that, we got the tram to Saint Lorenzo church, which has an antique colonnade in front of it. Inside the church, visitors can see some of the older architecture and design and read up about the church.

I then got a birthday cake but could not resist taking some photographs of the colourful macaroons.

Back in the hotel, I cut the cake and sat down to relax the rest of the afternoon. Not long after arriving at the hotel, a street jazz musician started to play outside the balcony window and that was a perfect time to my stay. I could have sat and listened for hours to him play. I would have paid him more to play more songs.

So, this is another reason that the hotel was so good. On the evening of my birthday, after having gone out to eat and hearing the concert play in the Duomo Plaza, I returned to the room to a bottle of Prosecco and a traditional cake with raspberry and coffee-based cream. (I'm not a fan of coffee, so I scraped that bit off and had the raspberry and thin slices of pastry).

Thank you to Grand Hotel et de Milan for making my birthday day to Milan fantastic; live jazz outside the window, a bottle of Prosecco, a cake, and a nice room! 

On the fourth day, I had planned a bus tour to Lake Como. The first stop was in the town Como. After that, there was a boat trip to look at the villas on the way to Bellagio. Then, we had a couple of hours to spend in Bellagio. It was all a bit rushed, though and the one day with not perfect weather. 

On the fifth and final day, I had a quick look for some street art, and this consisted of more walking than I wanted to do ideally. I mis-judged distances. The below photograph is taken near the central station, which is not the nicest of places. And the above photograph shows the last gelato. I had grape, lemon and raspberry. I loved the grape.

Now, for the birthday meal on the birthday day. I wanted to cover this last. I ended up in the Galleria and I expected the food to be a tourist trap here, but actually, I found a gem of a restaurant at Galleria Restaurant and Pizzeria. A photograph of it is below, but make sure you go to the correct restaurant. This one was also popular with locals, which is a good sign. The restaurant is located on the side near the Leonardo da Vinci statue, and if the statue is behind you, the restaurant is on your right-hand-side.

We had little traditional tasters to go with the main meal. The one below was a rice ball with batter and tomato but I don't know the traditional names. We had a selection of bread and tomato bread.

I had vegetable soup to start, which is a little different than I am used to. The both was watery compared to thick, but that's the way it is in Milan. 

I had chicken, and these were served with the most delicious potatoes. I am not really a fan of potatoes, but these were spot on perfect. And the chicken was tender and tasty as well.

Bloke had veal, a traditional Milanese dish.

My dessert was a wild strawberry tart, and it was delicious and came with a candle.

We also got some extras on the house, including miniature ice cream bars covered with chocolate. These were so good.

And a glass of Lemoncello with little pastries. These all tasted amazing too.

While we were eating, we were sat outside in the Galleria and could hear the wonderful classical music concert play in the plaza. It sounded amazing. This attracted huge crowds, so we couldn't have gotten close if we wanted to. But although we were in the Galleria and the acoustics were not the best, it still sounded amazing.

And that concludes my trip to Milan. So do check out the gems I mentioned - the Grand Hotel et de Milan hotel and also the Galleria Restaurant. Let me know if you do go!

Earlier this month, I visited the city of Milan in Italy. I've already covered my visit to Bellagio, Lake Como boat trip, and the town of Como, a visit to the science and technology museum, my impressions on "The Last Supper", the Brera Gallery and Eataly, and the visit to Sforza Castle. One of the main attractions is in Milan, and I've been waiting to cover it as I've had to go through a lot of photographs. Milan's cathedral (Milan duomo) is the third largest cathedral in Europe and the fourth largest in the world. It is actually a huge building, and my photographs cannot do it justice. The cathedral actually has a number of attractions associated with it. There is the cathedral itself, the crypt and foundations of the old cathedral, Saint Carlos' (Charles Borromeus') tomb/relic, the museum on the other side of the square, and the rooftop tour.

The current cathedral dates from the mid-1300s, although an earlier one occupied the same location. It is set in the old city of Milan, which used to be a walled Roman city but only a small portion of wall now exists. The cathedral is at one end of a spacious square, so visitors should be able to get better photographs at a distance. During my visit, a classical music concert was held in the plaza, and stages and lighting/stereo equipment was set up for this and obscured one side of the cathedral if standing at a greater distance.

The cathedral was visited in my first full day, and I prefer to get up early to beat the crowds, particularly when I read that the lines/queues can be long. So, I arrive just after 8:00 in the morning, and there's already huge crowds. It turned out that the crowds were for the ordinantion of a new priest for the cathedral and the visitors were mainly locals or who had come from a pilgrimage. For this to have attracted large crowds must mean that religion is an important part of life in Italy. After being in the line for a while, eventually the people in front of us realised that we were tourists and told us what was going on. So, we ended up sitting down in the square on a statue plinth and booked advance duomo tickets (which is what I was going to avoid) to visit the cathedral and the rooftop. 

There are several options when buying tickets. You can get tickets for the cathedral on its own, crypt and cathedral, rooftop, rooftop with lift/elevator access, and a combination. There also are guided tours for an additional cost. When buying from the cathedral, the tickets are valid for a day. With the lift access, we found the queue went very fast (we got a little unlucky that there was not a queue at all but a large tour group partially beat us to it). The lift is small and can only take about six people at a time, but it is quick to the top. Also, with the lift access, you can bypass the main entrance line (which you still have to wait in even if you did buy "skip the line" as we did), and complete the rooftop then get the lift down for the cathedral (though make sure you do get the correct lift and not the one that goes back to the street).

Once on the rooftop, you start at the lower level. This is a unique experience because I do not know of any other cathedral in the world where you can climb on top of the actual roof. You can see the people below, the gargoyles and the flying buttresses that ground the church and keep gravity from collapsing from the weight of the thick walls and ceiling.

Everywhere I looked, I saw a gargoyle or carving.

Each area of the rooftop that was being held up by the buttresses created a little area on the roof, and there are doorways to walk through. They must have intended for the roof to be walked on because of the amount of sculptures and gargoyles that you can only see while on top.

From here, you eventually get to the end of the building. The walkway only goes along one side of the cathedral. At the end are a narrow row of steps that allow visitors to access the very top of the cathedral.

The photograph above and below shows the top with part of the gold statue in view.

From here, the views across the city of Milan are stunning. There are good views over the Galleria, the arcade of shops and restaurants just next to the cathedral, and its dome can be seen here.

On the opposite side of the cathedral, visits can look over the cathedral museum.

The tower, Torre Velasca, can be seen in the distance. This building was designed to mimic medieval architecture, such as the style of Sforza Castle in Milan. 

After the wander around on top of the very warm cathedral roof, we traced back our steps and followed the sign to the lift for the cathedral entrance, which we had to wait a few minutes for as the lift here is smaller than the other and can only take about four people. Finally, we were inside the main cathedral building, and the size of it was impressive. I cannot really add much, so I will let the photographs do the talking.

After seeing a part of the cathedral, the next visit was to see the crypt. The section of the crypt is an archeology museum. This covers the part of the old cathedral which was built on for the new one. It covers the time of the 4th century when the Baptistry of San Giovanni was built. It shows the height level change from today's urban world from the middle ages. There are several places where the original mosaics and floor tiles can be seen.

The remains include the Funerary Basilica, which suffered heavy damage after sewage works in the 1800s. There are also a few graves here, including what was thought to be a family tomb and the tomb of a newborn baby.

The medieval frescoes to be seen here in the crypt are one of the highlights. 

A view of the floor tiles is below.

The huge monolith is below is from the front of the Romanesque Sainta Tecla, which was the first cathedral. The part of the new cathedral is built on top of it.

Also a cabinet contains items found in the walls.

After visiting this part of the crypt, we walked to another part of the building (out the exit to the apse) to the crypt of Saint Carlos (Charles Borromeo), archbishop of Milan cathedal. There was a room for the body and also one with a relic chest. 

After leaving the crypt, I had a wander around the apse.

The Modonna of Milan cathedral (the gold figure on the spire) is shown as a replica in the church.

I also took a few photographs of the cathedral at dark on one of my evenings in Milan. It is a nice place to watch people.

After wandering around the cathedral and the rooftop, it was time for a refreshment. In the Galleria, I had found a little cafe earlier in the day and we stopped there to get lemonade. This is the best lemonade that I have tasted, and it is made from lemons on the Amalfi coast.

Milan cathedral is open from 8:30 in the summer, and tickets can be purchased in advance or through waiting in the queue.

Next stop, Bellagio! Bellagio is a village in Italy on the shore of Lake Como. The village consists of two main streets, one which runs along the seafront, and the other which is located further up the hill and accessible via one of a number of steps from the seafront road to the top. This road is narrow and attractive with mainly tousity shops (as the seafront road) and a church in an attractive square. The different branches of Lake Como can be seen here at Bellagio if walking down to the end and apparently there is a garden to visit. We only had an hour and a half in order to get late lunch and have a quick walk around to see as much as we could see.

Below shows Lake Como at the point where the lakes join in the middle.

I stopped and had gelato at one of the shops at the top of the village. I realised afterwards that I should have had mint, strawberry and lemon instead of mint, melon, and lemon so that the colours would be the Italian flag colours instead of the Ireland flag colours. The mint was particularly very refreshing, and the lemon was spot on too. Lemon sorbet is actually my favourite. (I also had grape sorbet later on in my trip, and I love grape-flavoured items, but they don't have much of that in the UK as it's always blackcurrant, which I dislike).

Glimpses of the lake could be seen from the top road. It was just too beautiful not to take many photographs of.

And these mountain photographs are also to die for with the red impatiens.

Finally, our time at Bellagio came to an end.

Bye bye, Bellagio. I would have loved to have more time to spend here and would have liked to have seen the gardens, which were apparently a ten-minute walk up the coast. I did not have much time to look around.

After exploring the town of Como on Lake Como (in Italy) in the morning, the group of us in the tour had a boat trip on the lake to go to Bellagio. I will cover Bellagio in another post, but I felt that Lake Como needs its own post because there was a lot to see. The trip itself from Como to Bellagio took two and a half hours in total. We left Como and were the second large group on the boat due to having to wait for one of the other tourists who was late, so that meant that we were late getting onto the boat and all of the seats on the upper decks were taken so I had to sit below in the covered area, which was not great, and my feet kept getting eaten by an insect. Also, two guides at least were giving commentary through a headset, but our guide's headset did not work and kept breaking up so that we couldn't hear anything. I was originally disappointed that I could not book this for my milestone birthday the day before as it was booked full, so it was done the day after my birthday. I am glad I did not do it on my birthday because it was a disappointing trip.

The boat we went on is the "Plinio", and here it is in Como. We were on the ground deck because all of the seats outside on the upper decks were taken, and we were one of the last on the boat due to what was stated above. The deck underneath the top is the restaurant, and it has a decent view but those seats were reserved by the windows by some of the guests in advance.

So the photographs are a mixture of the attractive Italian villages along Lake Como. Each one had colourful buildings and a church with a bell tower. The mountains are the foothills of the Alps. I also took photographs of the villas, but because of the audio issues cutting out, sometimes we were pointed out the villa but we could not hear the history or information about it. So, these photographs will be a lot of Italian villages and villas that I do not have any information about.

Part of the reason that the trip took two and a half hours is due to the fact that the boat stops at approximately 16 villages along the way to pick up and let off people.

The villa below with the green shutters and gazebo is owned by George Clooney.

Someone told me that the villa below is owned by Richard Branson.

The villa below is one of the most popular and is often the poster-villa for Lake Como villas. It is owned by George Lucas and was used in one of the "James Bond" films and in one of the "Star Wars" films of the 1990s, "Attack of the Clones". It has also been used in other Hollywood films. The villa is known as Villa Balbianello, and it can be visited.

I liked the blue flowery hill behind this villa.

Any help with any of the photographs of villas in this post would be much appreciated as I cannot locate any information about them. However, do check out my next post, which will be about the village of Bellagio on Lake Como.

Many people have heard of Lake Como in Italy and know it as a celebrity hang-out, but perhaps most people have never heard of the town of Como, which is situated on Lake Como in Italy. Como is located in Lombardy, Italy, which is in the northern part bordering the Alps with Switzerland to the north. From Como, visitors can take a boat on the vast Lake Como or simply enjoy the town. I had about an hour and a half to spend at the town of Como, and this allowed me enough time for a very quick sandals purchase (my heels were sore), a quick walk around the city, and a visit to the cathedral (duomo).

Como is not a big city. There are two main shopping streets in Como, and the first one goes off from the cathedral's square. The second one is the next street to the north of the cathedral. My heels were hurting so bad that my first stop was on this street in order to buy heel-less sandals. (Mind you, my feet got eaten on the boat trip that I'd take later.)

From there, walking straight and coming to what was an old school or museum, the road turned to the right and contained a few shops before intersecting with the other main road. This road is the one that contains part of the old Roman wall and the remaining tower. There are other towers, but this is the most interesting one. The town of Como was actually on a hillside nearby before it became under Roman occupation in 1BC. After this, Julius Caesar demanded the town be rebuilt on swampland that was drained and the town walls were built at this time. The other side of this tower contains two archways.

The town of Como was at war with Milan town and won in 1162. Como and Milan were also invaded and occupied by the French, Spanish and Austrians throughout the years. Today, Como is known for its silk production.

Pliny the Elder and Pliny the Younger were born in Como. Pliny the Elder was born in 23AD, and the town would have been relatively a young town at that time. Pliny the Elder had written about the destruction of Pompeii in detail. His statue is located on the front of the cathedral in Como to celebrate his living in the town. In fact, Pliny the Elder died of what is though a heart attack during the Pompeii events in 79.

In Como, I found an ice cream shop selling fruit lollies, and I got a lemon one. It was late morning, but the weather was humid so it was refreshing.

I found an interior courtyard with a church. It was very picturesque.

Before going to get our boat journey on Lake Como, I had a moment to explore Como duomo, the cathedral. The front of the cathedral is made of different colour bricks. Unfortunately, our guide's communication equipment were not good and we could not hear (plus the group was too large, so I would recommend making your own way to Como and planning ahead and exploring on your own instead of using a tour group). The only thing that I managed to gather about the cathedral was that one of the statues was Pliny. Reading online, however, the work on the cathedral started in the mid-1300s but was not finished until the late 1700s.

The views from the harbour looked quite attractive with the flowers, and that's someone's head in my way and not my thumb. One of the other drawbacks of going with a big group is that there's tight deadlines (or rushing about because one of the group has not turned up when they should have done) and someone is always in the way.

Have you ever been to Como? I would visit again at my own lesiure to have more time, but it is a stop popular with tour groups unfortunately, but I think they tend to stop here early and then go onto the lake like we did.

After seeing Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper" at the Santa Maria della Grazie church on the edge of Milan's centre, I walked a short walk away to visit the Science and Technology Museum (named in honor of Leonard da Vinci). The museum includes a large tribute to the artist, and the museum is named after him because it signifies the strong relationship between art, science and technology. The exhibit for Leonardo da Vinci is on the top floor and contains models built from illustrations of his inventions, and some of these have been used or used in part since. There are descriptions next to each model to define what it does. Also included are books and other items from the past in relation to the artist. You can read more about this exhibit later, but first is a photograph of the entrance to the museum. 

The museum had three cars and discussed the power of Italian design and cars with one car on show being built in 1955 for the 24-hour Le-Mans race. The car 'Bisiluro', translates to "two torpedos" based on the car's shape. Unfortunately, a Jaguar pushed the car off the tracks after the first two hours, and the car was then donated to the museum. Alfa Romeo was another car on display, and this car has its roots in Milan.

Next on display is a sculpture that was known as 'The Little Lady of Milan', and it was made in 1933. In World War 2, it was put on storage and then taken out after the way to be put on display. It fell and had its arm broke and was later moved to the city centre. It suffered another fall there and broke into 85 pieces, all of which had to be reconstructed.

Adjoining this area is a reconstructed clockmaker's room, which was brought to the museum. The clockmaker was Bertolla and he worked on clocks from 1702 to 1789 with the knowledge passed to sons and grandsons. Pocket watches and pendulum clocks were a speciality.

Another area showed computers and the enigma codebreaker machine. I had one of these Apple computers growing up, so to see it in a museum was odd.

The below photographs are a few of the displays from Leonardo da Vinci's sketches, including the glider. Another one was the loom, which was built and used. 

The printing press was already invented, but Leonardo studied it and designed a more automatic mechanical approach. Other items he had ideas for were propelled boats, automatic saws, swing bridges, and inventions for logistics and military uses.

After this was a model of the Parthenon in Rome.

Next were rooms that discussed and showed the history of telephones, television, audio/radio, and electricity. These areas have seen a lot of change in the past 20 years. These exhibits were near the space exhibit, which contained items sent to space and this little Italian flag, gifted from President Nixon to Italy after a moon trip in 1972. It also included a little moonrock, which I couldn't photograph well.

After this area of the exhibition, the next area was to go down a floor and then back into another part of the building through an internal courtyard.

And I discovered one area of the museum that had some artifacts and areas in the floor to look down. I believe this was the necropolis as the museum itself is outside the old city walls (or would have been, but the walls do not exist anymore), and the Romans always had the necropolis just outside the city walls.

Metal-working and a replica forge and room with steam machinery were looked at. There was also an exhibit on recycling, plastics, different types of metal, and atoms.

Outside is a submarine that can be looked around at an additional cost and additional exhibits at other buildings, including an exhibit of locomotives and then another building with ships and planes. 

I met a friend in the locomotive building! Hello black kitty.

Overall, I spent close to three hours at Milan's Science and Technology Museum. Have you ever visited?

Tickets to see Leonardo da Vinci's famous masterpiece "The Last Supper" sell out about three months in advance, so visitors are urged to book ahead. However, if you are staying in Milan for a few days, you should be able to get lucky to find tickets through a tour operator during a guided tour or an after-hours evening tour as long as you do plan in advance. I was able to book tickets through a tour operator a week prior to my departure in order to see "The Last Supper", which is located at the Santa Maria della Grazie and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Santa Maria della Grazie is a church and monastary, and "The Last Supper" was painted in the refectory on the wall shared with the kitchen between 1494 and 1498. The work took this many years to complete due to the technique that Leonardo da Vinci used by painting the colour onto the wet plaster. This is a slow process but ensured colour and detail to be absorbed into the wall.

The monastary can be seen through a set of double doors before you enter the room where the painting is located, and it is a beautiful building. Visitors have to wait outside the room because only a capped number of people can be in the room at a time, and visits are limited to fifteen minutes. This is due to the protection and restoration efforts of the painting. Visitors to museums bring in humidity and pollen/items on their clothing which can damage artwork, and air filter systems are in place to remove the humidity and damaging items. This is why only a few people can enter the room and visits are capped to 15 minutes.

The artwork is painted on one side of the room. Measures were put in place to ensure it was protected in World War 2, but the roof and another wall did collapse. The room stood open for a while to the elements, and Napoleon used the room as a stable, so the wall would have gotten dirty. Also, other painters would have tried to restore the artwork over the ages and made some changes. Other damage occured due to the humidity of the kitchen on the other side of the wall and a doorway cut into the wall for access to the kitchen. The central figure (Jesus) lost his feet in this change. Another change found while restoring the artwork to the original was that Jesus has his mouth slightly open instead of closed. The latest restoration was completed in 1999 after twenty years where layers of dust and paint were removed.

We learned about these facts and more during our visit to the room, and the tour concluded with more explanation in the courtyard and in front of a large television screen that projects a copy of the artwork so that it can be talked about more in depth. In general, I think this captured the imagination of the people because so much is happening in the artwork, and the figures are arranged in groups of three and interacting. A lot more is revealed in the story of Jesus' last supper for people who study Christianity.

The work took so long to complete, and because of the technique used, the older bits of painting started to deteriorate before Leonardo da Vinci was finished. In fact, some days he would spend hours on the scaffolding creating the artwork and other days he did not do any painting (but he was probably thinking about the painting). There are written accounts about this and I can imagine that the monks living there just wanted the work to be finished.

"The Last Supper" is Jesus Christ and his twelve friends (disciples) who gather around the table as they probably did often. However, on this day, Jesus is in the middle of telling them that one of them will betray him to the Romans where he will be killed. Each of the figures deals with the news and their reactions in a different way, related to the character of the disciple or their actions at some point in the Bible. The hands of the figures are looked at with attention to Judas, the betrayer, who is reaching out to grab with his head turned in an uncomfortable way.  

I thought the figure to the right of Jesus looked like a female figure, and apparently it may be. But others claim that it is John the Baptist as he was young. I am not sure. He has long hair, but then so does Jesus. 

On the other side of the wall is another painting, which was started at the same time as Leonardo da Vinci's bit finished in less time.

I took a picture of the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, which is still a working church and a monastary. The church is located in Milan centre, but it's on the edge of the centre and is about a fifteen-minute walk from the duomo (cathedral) and main town square. Note that we received a lot of information about the painting, and the tour was approximately an hour long, and we got to spend more time in front of the painting than some of the other groups did. The best way to see the "The Last Supper" (unless you're an expert and have studied it) is probably through a tour so that the guide can point out the details in the painting and the story.

While in Milan, I made a stop to see the art gallery Pinacoteca di Brera and then followed this up with a short walk to Eataly, an Italian food shop with restaurants. This gallery, Pinacoteca di Brera, can be explored in a couple of hours, and there are other attractions on site, such as a library. The Pinacoteca di Brera is a unique museum in that visitors do not just see the art displayed in nearly 40 rooms but they can understand it from a research view and see canvases being stored and also restored.

Visitors can see the restoration equipment, including a huge workshop that can hold a very large canvas during restoration work. The gallery is very good in that each painting has a description in the museum, and the description is in Italian and English. (For those who prefer to see the artwork from the comfort of their couch, most of the artwork is photographed and arranged into rooms and searchable on the website http://pinacotecabrera.org/en/collezioni/).

Renaissance and religious art is the most common at this museum. There are some fantastic pieces.

One of the works in the gallery is by Sofonisba Anguissola, one of the few Renaissance women painters. This painting was painted early in her stay at Madrid court, and this portrait of the young women shows a fine attention to detail of the gold, pearls, and fur.

The painting below is by Carlo Dolci and shows David after his defeat of the giant Goliath. The drapery is very detailed as is the face of David, which is very luminous. It is thought that this work was commissioned by John Finch as a gift for the Queen of England.

My favourite paintings in this gallery were toward the later rooms. I'm not a fan of the religious art as the same themes are often reused although interpreted in different styles. One room featured some landscapes by Bernardo Bellotto. He studied under his uncle Canaletto in Venice and then travelled Europe to paint landscapes in a time when photography did not exist. 

The above painting was painted in afternoon light with the workers returning from fields. The landscape is of Lombardy, which is the countryside around Milan. There are also several of Venice, including one that was painted by Canaletto, the uncle of this painter. The work was finished in the workshop in order to accurately paint the architecture.

Another painting of the Grand Canal in Venice is from painter Francesco Guardi, who also studied under Canaletto. It is titled "View of the Grand Canal." It was painted after 1754 because the domed bell tower on the church was added in that year.

One room did not have much to explain about the paintings as they were on an audio guide. This room had modern art.

Guiseppe Bossi painted a portrait.

Franscesco Hayez painted 'The Kiss', which is an Italian Romanticism work. It shows a couple from the Middle Ages kissing, and the kiss is the focus. It is one of the best examples of "the kiss" in art. The work has inspired film and branding.

Gerolamo Induno painted this painting featuring a young woman sitting on a bed in a modest home. The above work "The Kiss" is actually on the wall in the background of this painting.

The above painting was painted by Giovanni Segantini. Many paintings in this room were very similar with landscape country scenes, idyllic settings. This one features cows, and it was one of the artist's favourite works.

On exiting (or entering) the galleries, visitors can have a look through the window at the beautiful library. I believe that the library can be visited for a cost. After exiting, the gallery is on the first floor and the inner courtyard is below.

After a couple of hours spent at the Pinacoteca di Brera, I had a short walk to Eataly, which is a specialised food shop selling Italian products. It's just outside the main centre of Milan. The shop reminded me of a Whole Foods. Different Italian restaurants are arranged on the floors, and I had lunch on the top floor.

I had melanzane alla parmigiana, which is a vegetarian lasagna made with eggplant and cheese. I've had this dish before, and it was very tasty.

The bloke had mixed grill. He doesn't care for Italian food, pizza, or pasta. I love pasta.

I had the chocolate and apricot tart for dessert. This seems to be a common dish in this part of Europe (Austria and southern Germany). You cannot taste the apricot but it is an ingredient. 

I had a look around the food shop after eating and looked at the vegetables. I have not seen horticulture beans or the yellow beans (I forget the name of them) in years. We used to grow both types of beans in the US, and I had to pick them.

Overall, the meal tasted nice at Eataly but was expensive, especially considering that it is on the store's floor and not an intimate restaurant set up. I was not expecting it to be quite expensive for those prices. Have you ever visited Eataly or the art gallery?

I recently returned from a trip to Milan, Italy, and I spent most of the day at Sforza Castle. The castle dates from the 15th century and is named after its builder Francesco Sforza, who was the Duke of Milan. It is located in the city centre, and in addition to the historical castle building, the building itself doubles as a museum and art gallery. This museum is also special because it includes some work by sculptor Michelangelo, including the last sculpture by the artist, which has not be finished. The castle museums contain prehistoric rooms, Egyptian rooms (closed currently), art/sculpture galleries, modern art/furniture gallery, musical instruments, and china/glassware. There is also a current agumented reality game taking place at the castle where you can become a medieval fighter/archer and defend the castle, and this takes you to part of the castle and the upper walls and towers, which are normally off-limits. I did this activity, and it was really fun as it was a game along with a look at the castle as it was historically. 

Although the current version of the castle dates to the mid-1400s, the first castle on the site was built a little over a century before. In the re-designed castle dating from the 15th century, a number of artists worked on the rooms. One of these was Leonardo ds Vinci, whose work is famous in Milan and throughout the world. He made frescos for several of the rooms and worked in collaboration with Bernardino Zenale and Bernardino Butinone, two names who came up in the castle often. The Sala delle Asse was one of the rooms that Leonardo da Vinci worked on. The castle was captured by the Spanish, and re-decorations during this period and bombing during World War 2 had damaged the castle.

The castle has two inner courtyards, and the first one contains the small room with the work by Michelangelo. This is a not-to-miss exhibition as it includes the last sculpture by the artist.

The sculpture is located in the centre of the room, and he worked on this piece for at least a decade. It is called Pieta. The sculptor tried different solutions and had re-worked the figures. It shows Madonna carrying the dead body of Jesus. A modern example of this artwork has been created by New York artist Barry X Ball, and this can be seen in the art galleries in the main part of the castle.

This coin was in the room of Michelangelo's work as well as a sculptued head of the sculptor. The coin below is a new casting of a replica given to Michelangelo.

The funerary altar below was also the work of Michelangelo. 

Progressing in, many used cannon balls can be seen in the moat. It is also thought that Leonardo da Vinci oversaw the construction of part of the castle and was greatly involved in it throughout.

The archeology museum is located in the first part of the castle after purchasing tickets, and contains many items gathered from churches that have been demolished.

After this area, the exhibit continued and blended into the art exhibits along the side of the building and under the Leonardo da Vinci room. The celings and walls of these rooms are decorarated beautifully and some of them are currently being taken care of.

One of the items in one of the rooms is a painting by Leonardo da Vinci. The back of the canvas is exposed so that visitors can see his signature.

Some beautiful stained glass shines between the inner courtyards between the corridor-like rooms of this wing of the museum. Several of the galleries, particularly on the upper floor, had mainly religious art. There were so many different interpretations of the Madonna and baby.

Another room had different furniture; some of it was older, and some of it was very modern.

One of the most unique items in one of the rooms off the galleries is this devil. It was created with a torso that was probably from a church dating from the 16th century. It had a clockwork head attached and could stick out its tongue, move eyes and mouth and make a sound. It also used to have horns, but these are most. This would have creeped me out if I was a child.

This room also contains some interesting items, such as the little boats and globes.

After having the look around and getting lunch, we booked into the agumented reality "Beyond the Castle" to defend the castle! This included a trip to the top of the castle walls and a short history lesson by our knowledgeable guide. Using the headset, we could see what the castle looked like in old times and we could defend the castle using a bow and arrow, which was really fun, and another weapon. The other weapon was a hand-held cannon (pre-gun) and I could not quite get the hang of this one. The arrow was more fun. We had to shoot moving targets (the enemy) and this got tallied up against the other competitors.

Our guide showed us the Milan skyline from the top of the walls and went over the buildings. The tallest building in Milan is located in the above photograph, and this is the financial area of the city.

We could also see the Arc of Peace (Porta Sempione), which looks like Paris's Arc of Triump. This marks the location of the old city gate where the Roman walls surrounded the old city. The arc started construction when Napoleon controlled the city, and then the Austrians took over the city. The arc was finished later and has an inscription mentioning Napoleon.

The arched walls on the castle are unique and apparently only a couple of castles have them. I cannot remember exactly what the guide said about them other than the design is unique.

After visiting the "Beyond the Walls" and winning the game by killing more enemies storming the castle, I had a quick walk around the prehistoric collections. The Egyptian rooms are nearby, but these are currently closed.

Before leaving the castle, a walk along and outside the walls was in order. 

The castle has the city's emblem of a snake-dragon, although the one on the tower pictured below is damaged. This symbol is also used by other brands, such as car brand Alfa Romeo.

That concludes the visit to the castle. If visiting Sforza Castle in Milan, I suggest to plan over half a day at the castle because there is so much to see and a lot to read. Also, there are so many museums in the castle, and there is so much to see so just plan ahead to see the bits that you want to visit. However, it is difficult to leave the "flow" in places as the rooms just join one after the other, and they all flow together. Make sure not to miss the Michelangelo room, and I'd suggest seeing some of the art. I'm not into musical instruments, glassware/ceramic but did go through those rooms but they did not really interest me. I also got a little tired of the religious art and interpretations of Madonna and Child, but religious artwork isn't my interest. However, there are some fantastic pieces by artists so these need to be seen. Also, there is a cafe inside the inner courtyard, and the food here is decent enough. You will need it as there's so much to see and a lot of walking that sitting down is required during the visit.

Although I have now lived in west London for two and a half years, I still have not had much time to explore the area. I did not work one day of the Bank Holiday at the end of May, so I decided to use this day to explore a local attraction. The attraction that I decided to visit the RAF Museum in Hendon, which is less than a 25-minute drive from where I live. This year marks 100 years of the RAF (Royal Air Force), and they have recently opened up a new museum this year to celebrate. I never got to see the museum before its renovation and new buildings, so i am unsure of how it looked. However, I will post some photographs below.

I certainly recommend this attraction as there is something for everyone here. The new building contains information about the different people employed by the RAF and the different skillsets. It also shows some vehicles, weapons, cameras, uniforms, and items from the wars from personal possessions to printed material. The building also contains several interactive features such as the ability to design your own aircraft for different reasons (long distance, speed, etc) and to participate in a bombing of a target with minimum casualty due to intelligence information. There were quite a few other interactive games/features to help learn about skills needed in the RAF, but I only looked at a couple of these.

One of the most interesting items in the museum is a piece of fabric from "The Red Baron's" plane. It was finally shot down, and the plane was looted for souvenirs. 

The new museum building has a new cafe with seating and a new gift shop. Unfortunately, they did not sell postcards, but they sold a lot of replica materials from the wars and model kits, RAF merchandise, and Red Arrows merchandise.

The next building to visit is a short walk away, and it is a small brick building with a hangar attached. It is dedicated to World War I and historical aircraft. It and one of the other buildings was my favourite part of the museum. A certificate signed by the king at the time marks the end of the war, and old planes were on display along with some personal possessions, propaganda, guns, items from enemy planes, and other items. The building also contained a switchboard.

After visiting the older hangar with the World War I planes, the next hangar was also a modern one and contained modern aircraft. The years covered were from 1950 to the present day. There was less on display in this hangar, but the planes are much larger.

The final hangar had the most planes, and these date from World War 2. Many different types of planes are on display from this era and there is a documentary about the Battle of Britain and the chance to sit inside a Spitfire plane and be told what the different controls do.

The RAF Museum is located in Hendon/Colindale, and it is outside of central London but can be accessed via taxi or a walk from Colindale tube station on the northern line, which is a twelve minute walk away from the musuem. The museum is free to visit. If arriving by car, there is a small cost for parking. To get the most out of the museum, I recommend spending at least half a day here and looking at the areas that interest you as there's so much to see that you can not possibly see it all. There are also cafes on site.

One of Hanbury Street's most iconic walls has been recently painted by Brazil-based street artist Milo Tchais, an artist that I covered several years ago in my post Street Art: Milo Tchais. I recognised his artwork from a previous visit to London quite a few years ago now. In fact, all but one of those old pieces no longer exist now as they have been painted or tagged over or gentrification has taken the walls. Tchais' style is painting colourful floral patterns, and this time, his work features a bird. The bird takes centre place on the mural.

The colourful murals that Milo Tchais creates add a touch of nature and colour to the bleak streets, particularly in this area of London where there are not many trees, plants, flowers, and green squares. A mural such as this is welcome.

Ben Eine is a street artist from London who has moved to California, but he does often visit London and has refreshed some of his artwork. He is one of London's most iconic street artists and paints typography on shutters and walls. Ebor Street in Shoreditch is one of the locations of his work where both walls have been painted with a message using the typography styles of Ben Eine. These walls get refreshed or replaced from time to time, and I have been following their status over the past several years. Recently, Ben Eine refreshed the work on one of the walls and the other one had a new coat of paint (with an unchanged message) in the past few months. The new message for the other walls reads "Peace is Possible", which is a good message in an era of uncertainty. 

Previous posts about Ben Eine on this blog are listed below:

Street Art: Ben Eine

Ben Eine Paints 'Like Nothing Else' on Ebor Street

Ben Eine Tribute to Grenfell Tower Victims

Ben Eine 'Last Days of Shoreditch'

Ben Eine New Street Art Summer 2016

Ben Eine 'Extortonists' Refresh

Every couple of year's, Trafalgar Square's fourth plinth gets a new artwork. The fourth plinth was originally created for a statue of William IV, but the funds were never sufficient. Instead, the fourth plinth found a new use and that was to house a new artwork every couple of years. Londoners and visitors to Trafalgar Square have seen a diverse array of artwork on the plinth. For the next two years, the artwork on display is 'The Invisible Enemy Should Not Exist' by New York artist Michael Rakowitz.

A winged bull diety used to exist at the entrance of the date of Nineveh from 700BC until February of 2015 when it was destroyed by terrorist group Islamic State along with other important artefacts and the museum. This was a destruction of art, history, and culture. This work rebuilds the Lamassu winged bull.

The winged bull is created from labels of brands. It is a pity that this work was destroyed.

The 2018-2020 fourth plinth artworks were unveiled in early 2017 (covered here), and the public could see smaller replicas and then vote for their favourite, which is the one now on the plinth. In 2020, another one from the list (the whipped cream and drone filming visitors) will take its place on the plinth. Previous creations and artwork that has graced Trafalgar Square's fourth plinth include the following: 

2018: 'The Invisible Enemy Should Not Exist'
2016: Really Good
2015: A horse skeleton with a stock ticker tape
2014: A giant blue rooster
2012: A boy on a rocking horse
2011: Ships in a bottle
2009: members of the public were encouraged to do their own 'thing' on the plinth
2005: limbless pregnant female

Amara por Dios is a Stockholm-based street artist who regularly paints in London. She often paints feminine portraits in bright colours with braids. Last month, she painted a new mural on Hanbury Street with a purple female portrait and the trademark green 'braids' or coils. She is also currently looking for more walls in London to paint, so hopefully we will see more of her work.

Previous work by Amara Por Dios on this blog can be seen by visiting the links below:

Street Art by Amara Por Dios Glows in the Dark
Amara por Dios Paints Tribute for International Women's Day
Amara Por Dios and Flesh031 Collaborate on 'Urban Jungle' Mural in Soho
Amara Por Dios: Village Underground Mural and Other Walls
Street Art: Amara, Kef, Cheba, Neoh, Masai, Airborne Mark and others
New Street Art by Artista, Saki and Amara por Dios

I really wanted to get to the Nomadic Community Gardens for this year's Meeting of the Styles. Unfortunately, I've been ill with a bad cold for most of the month of May and I've only just started to feel better. I still wasn't really up for going out on Saturday, but I wanted to get photographs before the street art was replaced as it never lasts long. I was glad that I went because I was really impressed with the big wall in Nomadic Community Gardens this year. This post covers the wall, as I thought it deserved a post of its own, but I will post photographs of the other street art from Meeting of the Styles in another post as there were some wonderful pieces this year.

The big wall is designed to look like Adobe Photoshop application on Microsoft Windows, a program that I am all too familiar with. The street art is presented in several Adobe Photoshop windows with the dialogs arranged to include a series of street art inside them with names of the files becoming the artist's name. There are also cursors, a colour-picker dialog, and "error" alert, and a partially-transparent background with part of street art design on top of it. It's actually a very creative idea.

The bottom of the wall shows the names of the artists who contributed to the wall: Voyder, Jeba, Fanakapan, Jim Vision, Core 246, Aches, Samer, Jay Kaes, and Irony. It also included the date and the sponsors of the "Meeting of the Styles". 

In the above image, the image in the top right dialog is by Jay Kaes, a London-based artist that often paints portraits using dimension and comic style, and I've covered his work many times on this blog.

To the left of that image is work from artist Aches from Dublin. It shows a greyscale grafitti-style tag of the artist's name.

The bottom right image with the alert dialog was created by Irony, which is a photo-realistic portrait in very much in the style that Irony paints. 

The bottom right image shich appears to be a flower is created by artist Samer. To the left of this is a portrait of two men in blue and pink colours, and this was painted by Core 246.

The piece above contains the artists that I have already identified except for the chrome skull, which is by artist Fanakapan, who paints in London often and paints foil balloons, chrome and glass.

From the top left in the above image is a grafitti-style drawing of a blue man by street artist Jeba. To the right of this is artwork by Jim Vision, who is based in London and often paints fantasy-style artwork.

The above photograph artists have been identified except for the top piece, which is by Voyder. It's very eye-catching as it is created with bright neon colours. Not only that, but the artist allowed creativity of the Adobe Photoshop theme here but seeming to erase a part of the background and then add the "transparency" background (the white and grey grid) with the squiggle line painted on the top layer.

Overall, the artwork here and the idea has been done very well, which blends all of the artwork and the different styles together perfectly. To see the wall, make your way to the Nomadic Community Gardens off Brick Lane. The gardens are located under the railway bridge off Pedley Street, and it is opened most of the day on Saturdays and usually later in the week from around noon.

Today's post covers mail-order pasta from Pasta Evangelists, which I had come across online and decided to try. I've been working from home a lot recently because of tight deadlines at work and long hours, which has also been a reason why I've not been able to update this blog a lot. I have been ordering the pasta most weeks, and this has been a life-saver as it is all prepared, and it only takes a few minutes to cook. This post covers my view first order from them. Note that they do have non-vegetarian options, and the pastas change each week, and they do sometimes bring back previous ones. I've just had the vegetarian ones as I don't eat much meat.

Each pasta order comes inside a box designed to fit through a mailbox. The box is wrapped well and has cooling wrapping and ice packs around it so that it arrives fresh. It is then put in the fridge, and it is meant to be used within about four days. It can also be frozen and used within a couple of months otherwise.

Each pasta dish comes with the ingredients that are colour-coded and a piece of paper that explains the pasta's history and other important information as well as how to cook it.

First up was the tomato and mozerella gnocchi. It's one of their most popular dishes.

The second one was a cream-based sauce with chopped nuts.

The third one was my favourite, and they have not brought it back yet in the past three months, and I am hoping that they do as it was delicious. It is a pumpkin-filled pasta with topped pumpkin and rosemary butter. 

Note that this is my own review and I have not been paid to write this review.