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Art in Milan and slapstick in London
Dec. 29th, 2014 01:03 amOn Tuesday I went to Milano for the day to meet my friends Paola and Francesco.
I took the fast Italo train
which takes you to Milan from Turin in under 50 minutes (it travels at 300 kmh). I got here at 9:40 am.
I had time to visit 5 churches slightly off the beaten track before meeting my friends for lunch. I took pictures of/in 4 of them.
The first was the church of San Maurizio al Monastero Maggiore which, in the past, was attached to a Benedictine convent. The front of the church was opened to the congregation
while the back - separated by a screen -
was reserved to the nuns, who would receive communion and watch the priest raising the host through two small holes in the screen.
The church and the nuns' hall are a masterpiece of Renaissance art, frescoed by Bernardino Luini and his sons. It is so lovely to look at.
(What big ones!)
I really loved the Noah's Ark's frescoes:
The second church was the Church of San Sepolcro, which had originally being modelled on the church of the Holy Sepuchre in Jerusalem.
It has a couple of terracotta scenes from the Last Supper
Then I visited the Church of San Sebastian, with its frescoed dome.
It was erected by the city of Milan to ask for protection from one of the many plague epidemics.
The last church was the church of Santa Maria presso San Satiro
built by Bramante at the end of the 15th century next to an 8th century chapel dedicated to San Satiro
which incorporated some Roman columns.
The most eye-catching feature of the church is the trompe l'oeil apse
You are tricked into thinking that the church has a choir, while in fact it's only 3 ft deep, as it is revealed when you get nearer:
The dome is also beautiful:
After pizza and a lot of chatting, we walked to Piazza Duomo
and to the Galleria to admire the Christmas tree adorned with Swarovski crystals:
-----
Christmas was spent at my parents' with my brother; and we visited my aunt in the afternoon.
I travelled back to London yesterday morning.
The flight was almost 2 hr 30 min late leaving because of technical problems.
The divider between business and economy was stuck without being locked in position, and the captain was concerned that it might move abruptly in case of turbulence.
So they had to call an engineer.
In the meantime, a passenger collapsed and the paramedics had to be summoned.
After the passenger and his family left the plane, the engineer arrived and with the help of a couple of passengers and the captain managed to unscrew the divider and then lock it in position.
Luckily I got back in time to relax at home before going out to the theatre with my sister-in-law and nephews (who travelled down to spend Christmas with Adrian)
We went to
Wilton's Music Hall which is (according to their website) " the world's oldest surviving Grand Music Hall and London's best kept secret. This stunning and atmospheric building is led by Frances Mayhew and produces an exciting programme of imaginative, diverse and distinct entertainment including theatre, music, comedy, cinema and cabaret."
The show was "Mrs Hudson's Christmas Corker".
The actors worked very hard and there were some funny parts, but I didn't really enjoy it that much.
I don't know if it's because we sat in the gallery and on the side and we all missed some of the lines (no microphones used) or because it was just all a bit too silly for me. It had good reviews - perhaps I'm not sophisticated enough to understand it.
I must admit that I enjoyed one of the actors who was rather hairy and in one scene had a costume mishap and ended up briefly naked (full frontal!). Oh gosh, I'm turning into a dirty old man! LOL!
(The Shard lit up for Christmas)
I took the fast Italo train
which takes you to Milan from Turin in under 50 minutes (it travels at 300 kmh). I got here at 9:40 am.
I had time to visit 5 churches slightly off the beaten track before meeting my friends for lunch. I took pictures of/in 4 of them.
The first was the church of San Maurizio al Monastero Maggiore which, in the past, was attached to a Benedictine convent. The front of the church was opened to the congregation
while the back - separated by a screen -
was reserved to the nuns, who would receive communion and watch the priest raising the host through two small holes in the screen.
The church and the nuns' hall are a masterpiece of Renaissance art, frescoed by Bernardino Luini and his sons. It is so lovely to look at.
(What big ones!)
I really loved the Noah's Ark's frescoes:
The second church was the Church of San Sepolcro, which had originally being modelled on the church of the Holy Sepuchre in Jerusalem.
It has a couple of terracotta scenes from the Last Supper
Then I visited the Church of San Sebastian, with its frescoed dome.
It was erected by the city of Milan to ask for protection from one of the many plague epidemics.
The last church was the church of Santa Maria presso San Satiro
built by Bramante at the end of the 15th century next to an 8th century chapel dedicated to San Satiro
which incorporated some Roman columns.
The most eye-catching feature of the church is the trompe l'oeil apse
You are tricked into thinking that the church has a choir, while in fact it's only 3 ft deep, as it is revealed when you get nearer:
The dome is also beautiful:
After pizza and a lot of chatting, we walked to Piazza Duomo
and to the Galleria to admire the Christmas tree adorned with Swarovski crystals:
-----
Christmas was spent at my parents' with my brother; and we visited my aunt in the afternoon.
I travelled back to London yesterday morning.
The flight was almost 2 hr 30 min late leaving because of technical problems.
The divider between business and economy was stuck without being locked in position, and the captain was concerned that it might move abruptly in case of turbulence.
So they had to call an engineer.
In the meantime, a passenger collapsed and the paramedics had to be summoned.
After the passenger and his family left the plane, the engineer arrived and with the help of a couple of passengers and the captain managed to unscrew the divider and then lock it in position.
Luckily I got back in time to relax at home before going out to the theatre with my sister-in-law and nephews (who travelled down to spend Christmas with Adrian)
We went to
Wilton's Music Hall which is (according to their website) " the world's oldest surviving Grand Music Hall and London's best kept secret. This stunning and atmospheric building is led by Frances Mayhew and produces an exciting programme of imaginative, diverse and distinct entertainment including theatre, music, comedy, cinema and cabaret."
The show was "Mrs Hudson's Christmas Corker".
The actors worked very hard and there were some funny parts, but I didn't really enjoy it that much.
I don't know if it's because we sat in the gallery and on the side and we all missed some of the lines (no microphones used) or because it was just all a bit too silly for me. It had good reviews - perhaps I'm not sophisticated enough to understand it.
I must admit that I enjoyed one of the actors who was rather hairy and in one scene had a costume mishap and ended up briefly naked (full frontal!). Oh gosh, I'm turning into a dirty old man! LOL!
(The Shard lit up for Christmas)
