Hi Everyone!
Yesterday I took the train from the Cinque Terre to Milan. I couldn't believe how gorgeous the Milano Centrale train station is.
Harold seems to make friends wherever he goes, especially in hostels. This is Lorena and her travel buddy, they're from Croatia.
Harold also made friends with Papa Francesco, the owner of the restaurant we went to for dinner. Papa Francesco will cook your pasta at your table, and even pose for pictures. I chose Papa Francesco's because it is really close to the opera house.
While the opera house doesn't look like much from the outside, it's stunning inside. I snapped this shot on the staircase on the way to my seats.
It turns out you can take as many pictures of the theater as you want, as long as it isn't during the production.
My seat was in a private box, along with a season ticket holder, and Kathy and Stan from St. Louis. Kathy is an opera teacher, so I was glad to have someone to discuss the opera with during intermission.
I realized that I forgot to pack my opera glasses, but La Scala has pop-up ones for sale in the theater shop. Best souvenir ever!
There's a super fancy private box,
And each seat has a subtitles screen so you can select the language you need.
The opera I saw was Don Giovanni, set in modern times.
During the overture, Don Giovanni climbs out of one of the private boxes, walks onto the stage, and pulls down the entire curtain from the stage to reveal a giant mirror that fills the entire stage. Since it reflects the audience, you could say that I got to be on stage at La Scala, even if only for a moment. I loved how the characters were played with more grit to them than I have seen in American productions. Don Giovanni is callous, and doesn't care that he hurts anyone with his actions, Donna Anna becomes a crazy stalker ex-girlfriend, and Zerlina isn't an innocent ingenue. The stage may not be very wide, but it is has considerable depth, which was used very effectively for the staging.
Today I visited the Duomo (cathedral) of Milan.
The cathedral doesn't look big on the outside, but it's huge on the inside!
I really enjoyed how colorful all the stained glass window are.
Harold and I climbed a bunch of stairs to get to the roof. Walking on the roof and seeing all the spires up close is amazing.
I visited the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, where local tradition has it that spinning around 3 times on the bull tile's "boy parts" is good luck (I'm trying to keep this PG folks!).
Harold really wanted his picture with the Leonardo DaVinci statue across from La Scala.
In the afternoon I visited the La Scala Opera Museum.
They had an exhibit on the conductor Arturo Toscanini. I really liked this interactive conductor's podium, you can listen to a recording of Toscanini conducting, while an electronic version of the score tracks where you are in the piece, and turns the pages automatically, giving you the experience of being a conductor.
For the rest of the afternoon I enjoyed photographing Sforza Castle. It reminded me a bit of Hampton Court in England, but Sforza castle is much bigger and was used as military barracks during the Austrian rule of Italy.
It's getting late here, so I'll leave you with a few final thoughts. It's really hot here in Milan, because I'm not used to humidity. It might be only 78 degrees, but I'm dying. Nothing is air conditioned, so I never really cool off until late evening. Speaking of evening, here are some evening photos of the Galleria and Duomo this evening,
Yesterday I took the train from the Cinque Terre to Milan. I couldn't believe how gorgeous the Milano Centrale train station is.
Harold seems to make friends wherever he goes, especially in hostels. This is Lorena and her travel buddy, they're from Croatia.
Harold also made friends with Papa Francesco, the owner of the restaurant we went to for dinner. Papa Francesco will cook your pasta at your table, and even pose for pictures. I chose Papa Francesco's because it is really close to the opera house.
While the opera house doesn't look like much from the outside, it's stunning inside. I snapped this shot on the staircase on the way to my seats.
It turns out you can take as many pictures of the theater as you want, as long as it isn't during the production.
My seat was in a private box, along with a season ticket holder, and Kathy and Stan from St. Louis. Kathy is an opera teacher, so I was glad to have someone to discuss the opera with during intermission.
I realized that I forgot to pack my opera glasses, but La Scala has pop-up ones for sale in the theater shop. Best souvenir ever!
There's a super fancy private box,
And each seat has a subtitles screen so you can select the language you need.
The opera I saw was Don Giovanni, set in modern times.
During the overture, Don Giovanni climbs out of one of the private boxes, walks onto the stage, and pulls down the entire curtain from the stage to reveal a giant mirror that fills the entire stage. Since it reflects the audience, you could say that I got to be on stage at La Scala, even if only for a moment. I loved how the characters were played with more grit to them than I have seen in American productions. Don Giovanni is callous, and doesn't care that he hurts anyone with his actions, Donna Anna becomes a crazy stalker ex-girlfriend, and Zerlina isn't an innocent ingenue. The stage may not be very wide, but it is has considerable depth, which was used very effectively for the staging.
Today I visited the Duomo (cathedral) of Milan.
The cathedral doesn't look big on the outside, but it's huge on the inside!
I really enjoyed how colorful all the stained glass window are.
Harold and I climbed a bunch of stairs to get to the roof. Walking on the roof and seeing all the spires up close is amazing.
I visited the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, where local tradition has it that spinning around 3 times on the bull tile's "boy parts" is good luck (I'm trying to keep this PG folks!).
Harold really wanted his picture with the Leonardo DaVinci statue across from La Scala.
In the afternoon I visited the La Scala Opera Museum.
They had an exhibit on the conductor Arturo Toscanini. I really liked this interactive conductor's podium, you can listen to a recording of Toscanini conducting, while an electronic version of the score tracks where you are in the piece, and turns the pages automatically, giving you the experience of being a conductor.
For the rest of the afternoon I enjoyed photographing Sforza Castle. It reminded me a bit of Hampton Court in England, but Sforza castle is much bigger and was used as military barracks during the Austrian rule of Italy.
It's getting late here, so I'll leave you with a few final thoughts. It's really hot here in Milan, because I'm not used to humidity. It might be only 78 degrees, but I'm dying. Nothing is air conditioned, so I never really cool off until late evening. Speaking of evening, here are some evening photos of the Galleria and Duomo this evening,
Hope you weren't near the terrorist attack there Thursday.
ReplyDeleteSo that was why the metro station was closed. I had to take a taxi to the train station and almost missed my train.
ReplyDeleteJust glad your safe.
ReplyDelete