Saturday 18th Milan

Saturday 18th Milan
This morning was an easy one, sleeping late and having a late breakfast, what a pleasant change.
However, we eventually took ourselves off to the Metro station and went to the area where the Castle is. This was the home of old kings of Milan and is a huge affair. It now comprises museums.
By lunch time our conscience kicked in and we had an orange each.
Then it was time to board the tour bus to take us around town. First stop was to La Scala Opera House. It is not a very impressive building from the outside and inside we were able to see into the theatre from some of the boxes. They were preparing for a premiere of an opera tonight and only the stage was lit, but it looked very impressive. The theatre has its own museum with paintings and busts of Toscanini, Verdi and many others.
Then it was into the main Piazza after walking through "The Galleria". To call it a shopping centre is a bit of an understatement. Buildings housing Prada and the like, the four walkways are covered in glass ceilings. From here we went into the Duomo, we had seen this yesterday from the outside, which is impressive, but inside is a huge space constructed entirely of marble and has the largest stained glass windows I have ever seen.
The final stop was to Santa Maria Della Grazie Basilica to view DaVinci's Last Supper. To get to this you have to go through two air locks and only 25 people at are a time can go in and only for 15 minutes, just enough time for our guide to explain the symbolism of the painting. Because of the way DaVinci painted it, it is very fragile but it was interesting to see.
It had started raining during the tour and by this time we had our umbrellas well and truly wet.
Then it was back by Metro to the local station and walked home after having tea.
Tomorrow we fly to Prague so it's Arrivedirci Italia.