Ti Amo, Milano

I am writing this blog post on the plane from Düsseldorf to Wien. "Düsseldorf?" you ask, "Why are you in north-western Germany?" When Natalie and I got to the Milanpensa early, we were told that the flight was over booked and they were looking for people to switch flights and go from Milan to Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf to Wien. Although this added at least an hour of flight time, and a descent amount of hassle, we're college students, so how could we turn down €120? I swear the Milan airport was designed by a child. It is the most convoluted and confusing layout, I guess I'm spoiled with PDX as my home airport. Düsseldorf is about as bad, and we ended up taking off at least half an hour late, so we're crossing our fingers that we make it in time to use the daytime public transportation, because the night lines (after 12 am on week nights) are a bit more foreign to us! 

We had a stellar weekend! (I'll try to get photos up tomorrow!) today the weather was lovely - better than forecasted - so no rain to spoil the walks. We decided to go to il Mondo de Leonardo, which is an exhibit currently in Milan on Leonardo's manuscripts of inventions, as well as some info about his artwork and life. It was quite fascinating! The exhibit was interactive, so it allowed us to get a good understanding of how the inventions would have worked. Apparently Master Leonardo would not have been able to build all of his inventions in 100 life-times, so there is a lot of speculation as to which he would have made. Many of the sketches are extremely detailed, even noting the materials to use, and the many of the inventions in the museum actually worked! Incredible.

Next we went to a cioccolato shop, and got liquid chocolate. It was like drinking a dark chocolate bar. So delicious! 

While sipping our drinking chocolate, we walked back toward the Castello Sforzesto where we visited the museum. Although it was more like a labyrinth, and we were never quite sure which part we would see next, it included a lot, and we really enjoyed it. The sections I most enjoyed were the ancient art (I was able to apply my art history knowledge) and the ancient instrument museum. It is fascinating to see the evolution of pianos and clarinets, and other instruments. They have quite the collection! 

Ti amo, Milano!