For those of you who aren’t fluent in Italian or Apple Translate, that means “Milan without a schedule” – and that was our plan for today, which we followed religiously. We slept late, had a leisurely breakfast in the hotel restaurant (if you’re here, I recommend the waffle), and finally decided to go visit the Museo Teatrale alla Scala on Piazza della Scala. Along the way, we paid our respects to Leonardo daVinci’s statue.
The museum is adjacent to the theatre itself, and we were able to go into a box on the third level and see the theatre for ourselves. They were doing technical adjustments, so the lighting was very low…and you’re not supposed to take photos. Oops.
The museum is filled with artifacts from the theatre’s history, including musical instruments, paintings of the theatre and its artists, busts of composers, conductors, and artists, and more.
The stairways leading to the museum were lined with vintage posters from earlier seasons of La Scala. I was struck by how little the design had changed, even to the poster for tonight’s production of “Der Rosenkavalier”.
This afternoon, we took a longish walk through Milan, out to the Arco della Pace, which Napoleon Bonaparte had erected in Milan after he’d crowned himself King of Italy. The walk took us past many interesting places – herewith a sampling.
Tomorrow, we’re back to Organized Activities, beginning with a very early departure from Milan.
