A new day. I think it is Saturday. We did meet Judy in London and flew into Italy together. It was an incredibly tiring day. It was also humid. We walked to our hotel, the Hotel Vecchia Milan, carrying our bags. We hadn't slept for about 24 (I don't do well without sleep) hours and we were hungry. The map we had was hard to read and the streets are not in straight rows. It seemed like we walked much further than the directions stated but we did find it and we only asked about seven people for help. The hotel was old and a little musty so we didn't think much of it but we were exhausted and didn't much care. We got into our room that was several little rooms, the windows were open-lots of street noise and hot. Judy found a small air conditioner, closed the windows which cut out the noise and it worked beautifully. The beds were great with crisp sheets. Eileen got up early and walked around the city. She woke us up at 7:30 am and we went downstairs to a delightful breakfast of fresh pastries w/cream cheese, cappuccino, yogurt and bottled water. It was perfect! We were on to our reservation to see the Last Supper painting by Leonardo da Vinci at the Church of Santa Maria Della Grazie (1652). This was a 15 minute viewing w/a guide in an air-controlled room. Unbelievable. After that we viewed the church -so old, so much to look at, so beautiful. One of the photos is the priest open for confession.

After that we walked to the church of San Maurizio. It was just down the street. It hosts the most integral and decorative cycle of 16th century Milanese painting. It stands in the heart of one of Milan's oldest most prestigious religious complexes, the Benedictine cloistered convent which we did get to see parts of the convent.




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