Head'n Home

-Up at 4 AM-
-To the airport at 5-
-To Paris at 7, across the Alps with morning sun bringing the earth to life-
-Across the sky blue ocean (the first time we have flown over the Atlantic by day)-
-Across Greenland: what a thrill to see miles and miles of this purported wasteland, so full of peace and beauty-
-To Minneapolis-
-To Bismarck-
-And 23 hours later to the greatest welcoming one can experience as Digby nearly jumped out of his skin to meet us.
-A nap on the floor with our pup, who snuggled very close to his master for a much needed cuddle.

Last Minute Reflections

Now we are in Malpensa Airport on Friday Nov.19, seventeen days since we began this journey. We are bound for Paris, Minneapolis and Bismarck, with scarcely enough Euros left for coffee. When George Mattson came back from a summer of camping in Europe, he said his dominate impressions were of "Christ and War". I (George) might have to use three terms: Power, Money and Art.
In Rome, power, both ecclesiastical and secular
In Florence, Medici money
Art in both places, chasing the money.
It's a paradox; art, which we know is the most interior, private, lonely, driven activity on earth, is sustained by filthy lucre from popes and bankers who want their rooms decorated. I am thinking too of the sermon I might give Sunday, health permitting. I would begin with the BCP, since we are using the 1549 Rite this Sunday, but then move back to the Protestant Reformation, linking the prayer book to the fundamental shift wrought by Luther, from institutional faith to an individual one with people praying and reading scripture daily...scripture alone, grace alone, faith alone. But without the Church, all the Duomos in the world don't mean squat. But behind the Duomos is the vast clunking machinery of the church. Without that, it's hard to see how Luther would have had access even had a scripture.

Effect Of The Drenching

Aside from our personal discomfort, the drenching rain shorted out our guides microphone so we were without her guidance for much of our tour. In addition, after Leonardo, we asked her to call us a taxi, as the thought of walking even one more block was beyond us. Even her i-phone did not work in this down pour, and when she finally got through to a cab company, it was busy, busy, busy. Guess why. Everyone in Milano was seeking a cab. So she sent us towards to a cab stand about 5 blocks away. We stood in the freezing torrent for another ten minutes until, THANKS BE TO GOD a taxi pulled up and we piled in for a very harrowing fourteen Euro ride to the train station, where we hopped on a train headed in the opposite direction. We actually jumped on a wrong train twice. After several angels helped us find the right train, we were then VERY uncertain about when to get off the train, which could have theoretically place us in a dark ally in the cold rain with no phone and no way to ask for help. In a word, panic or (sundowners)! But not life threatening, like walking in Rome without sidewalks and thousands of cars flashing by at 60 mph. Thankfully many kind people (angels) helped us along the way and we did to get off at the right stop. Otherwise, we still might be riding this train.

The three hour walking tour (actually 31/2 hours) was a torture. But we would not trade comfort for this experience. We did see the Duomo and da Vinci's "last Supper". That was the point.

After getting off the train we had another half a mile to walk to our B and B. Here is one minor warning. Bring two pairs of shoes. We each brought one, to save space. We traveled as lite as possible, with only one modest sized suit case each and a carry on. Three blocks from the B and B, Joanne's shoe strap broke and she spent the next day and a half until she reached Minot, limping along, trying to keep from losing the rest of the shoe.

We have never been so delighted to reach our lodging in our life. We then had a fabulous wood fired calzone and margarita pizza (the best in town we were told) and wonderful Italian wine. Then we went to bed until 4 AM. George was still sick, but life is not without its risks.

On to the Last Supper

Our guide was young. We were much older then the other members of this tour. It was cold and raining hard. Dusk approached. We were soaked to the bone. All in the name of art. To make our appointment for "The Last Supper", we walked very very fast and sometimes the keep up, we nearly ran for two hours across town. We had one ten minute stop for coffee. You have to pay extra to sit in Italian coffee shops, but the proprietors had mercy on us and we sat without the extra fee. After a ten minute warm-up, our guide said we had another 15 minutes to walk. It was really 40. We were moving so fast I (Joanne) literally had to trot on what felt like cold bloody stumps to keep up. If we were late, we'd miss the "Last Supper". No exceptions.

We paused for a moment at a museum along the way that contained another Michelangelo masterpiece, only to be told it was closed, though we would have had no time to enter anyway.

And then: after what seemed to be an interminable period of misery...there it was. The reason for the day. In a non-descript unmarked building housing "The Last Supper"!

It was common to paint "Last Suppers in dining rooms in monasteries. There are other "Last Suppers" painted by other artists in dining rooms in many monasteries. I hear there is a beautiful one inf Florence. This "Last Supper" was in an empty room with an ungainly fresco by an unknown artist on the opposite wall.

Leonardo's work is a triumph in restoration as much as a triumph of art. One could spend a lifetime looking at it. Every square inch is perfect. Leonardo was a master at recreating facial expressions that provide a viewer with an interior reality. Each apostle's reaction to Jesus' statement that "one among us will betray me" betrays the quality of a personal relationship with Christ. The perfect position of each apostle's hand also tells a story in itself.

The right bottom corner of the table cloth is tied in a knot, because da Vinci knew that the last name he assumed (da Vinci) could be interpreted etymologically to mean "knot". As noted earlier, Leonardo was illegitimate and his father never let him use the family name, though he did see that Leonardo was brought up and apprenticed. His mother was a chambermaid, presumably a bright one.

The problem is that Leonardo painted in this masterpiece with oil on plaster rather than a doing a fresco, which would have mixed the paint into the plaster, like in the Sistine Chapel. A fresco would have been more lasting. "The Last Supper" began deteriorating within 20 years after it was finished in 1497. By 1799 it was so far gone, Napoleon used the room as a stable. Over the centuries, there have been many "refurbishings", most of them producing nothing less than a disaster. An amazing door was literally cut into the painting's wall, to make the kitchen more accessible, thus destroying "Jesus's feet" for Heaven's sake.

What is more amazing is that we have this"Last Supper" at all.

This masterpiece was restored in 1996 by a new method unknown to our guide, but the colors appear faded. But this restoration is a major blessing. It is truly a masterpiece, well worth the trepidation and suffering to get here.

Movin' On

The Duomo is filled with history but we are scheduled to see "The Last Supper" in two hours and if we are late, we miss it. So out into the rain. Around the corner, we see a statue of Leonardo and across the street is the world's most famous opera house, La Scala. Outside, La Scala is one of those "common" unmarked buildings.

There are only three disappointments on the tour, minor compared to its magnificence: not being able to spend more time with Giotto at Assisi, missing "The Pieta'" in Florence, and not being able to go inside La Scala. But life is not without its imperfections.

Inside the Duomo

During WWII, Milano was particularly hit by the bombing. Italian faithful removed the 1000s of beautiful stained glass windows to place in safe keeping. In putting the windows back in place after the war, occasionally they were placed in the wrong order. So the stories from the OT and NT are occasionally out of sequence.

Our guide was fervent and informed, and very devoted to her faith. She told us, in all seriousness about how privileged we were to be able to come into the Duomo at a very special time when the body of archbishop Borromeo was brought up from the basement and elevated above a side alter, encased in a crystal see-through coffin, surrounded by candles, wrapped in white cloth, except for the face which is covered by a silver mask. Well over a hundred faithful sitting in adoration in benches in front of this alter. This saint spends all but one week of each year below. Borromeo became Archbishop in 1571 and was responsible, more than any other single figure, for the final design of the Duomo.

Nearby was an exquisite statue of St Bartholomew, who was skinned alive. It is amazingly anatomically correct (no skin and all). Nearby our guide points to a memorial to St Pius IV done by Michelangelo's friend because Michelangelo told the Pope he was too busy to do the work himself.

At least 100 feet above the main altar is a cross with a red light casting a faint light onto the darkened ceiling. This cross is said to contain one of the original nails from the Cross of Christ. Our guide's broke with emotion as she told us that once a year the bishop rises in a hydraulic bucket ("like an angel") attached to cables to obtain the nail for display. One week later he retrieves the nail and rises again to return it. Interesting.

The Duomo In Milano

The Duomo in Milano is the third largest christian church in the world. Construction began in 1386 and took 200 years to complete. It is 1577 meters long. There are two acres of church, 3400 statues and thousands of beautiful stained glass windows. The church is said to hold 40,000.

There is a statue of Mary covered with gold on the outside of this Duomo of St. Mary. Our guide told us that the "virgin" protected the city.