Saturday in London; Sunday in Eastbourne

Saturday we had a full day in London. We started off at the Royal Mews, inside the grounds of Buckingham Palace. This is where all the Queen's horses and all the Queen's carriages are lovingly cared for.

Then , it was off to the west end for a performance of the show ,"School of Rock". It was such a fun, high energy show. The kids were fabulous.

We met Bea's cousin, Kimry and her husband ,at Covent Garden for supper .

Then the game was afoot, as we went in search of 221B Baker Street. Bea is a huge fan of the TV series, "Sherlock". She and Sheelagh have worked their way through seasons 3 and 4 since the trip started.

Sunday saw us on the train to Eastbourne on the south coast. Sheelagh's cousin, Janet, lives there, with her family. It was a lovely day of sharing food, fun, and family. A great way to end our trip.

A Year of Planning Passes

Tomorrow we go home. For over a year, Sheelagh has been searching and planning for this trip. And now it is coming to a close.

On Friday, we had our last morning in Milan. Bea chose to go down for one more Granite from the place we went the first day. A sort of closure I suppose.

Sheelagh then discovered that Da Vinci's Vineyard was right next door, so we took a tour of that.

The wealthy guy, who had commissioned that Horse back there, and the Last Supper, owned two houses in the countryside of Milan. Over the years, he gave one to a trusted servant and kept one. Centuries later, they were joined to make one place. Now, they are high end apartments except for the ground floor, which the plebs can visit.
This is the courtyard.

This is the ceiling of the entrance hall.

 


The drawing room .

The gardens were, and are beautiful.

Looking back toward the house.

In the back was a vineyard that Leonardo was given by the original owner.  He planted the vines and tended them with care. When the French over ran Milan, he lost the vineyard for a while. But then he got it back and took care of it until his death. Now, of course, everything is in the middle of the city. But it was like finding a secret garden of tranquility.

During the war it was destroyed by bombs. But using his notes, and DNA testing, they have restored it with the same kind of vines. 

It was then a bit of a shock to go from the sublime to the ridiculous that was our easyJet flight to London!

Once Upon A Time There Was A Horse

In the 1450's, a wealthy patron, the guy who lived in the castle we went to the other day, commissioned Leonardo Da Vinci to create a statue of his Dad upon a horse. Leo did, only to be told that the horse wasn't grand enough. So, Da Vinci came up with a second model, in clay, which passed the test and was going to be used to create a bronze statue of the beast.

War came. All available bronze was required for the war effort. The clay horse was still standing in the open courtyard of the castle. Enter those French scoundrels with their guns. "Voila un cheval! Boomez! boomez! Pas de cheval!

Fast forward to the 1980's. Enter a wealthy American art lover. He reads about the deceased horse. "Let's do it!", he says. "The drawings are still with us even if the horse is not." He spends the next 15 years rallying people to the cause. But, in 1994, he dies. If he had had his way, the horse would have been in his home town, Allentown, PA. But, he died. The cause was not abandoned and finally, in 1999, behold, the largest horse statue in the world.  It's at the Hippodrome Racetrack in Milan, not the Castle. (Actually, there are a couple of copies in the USA)

       Pretty cool eh?








The Leonardo Horse project involves 13 smaller, life size, clay horses that have been given to 13 artists in Italy and around the world. They are to be decorated by the artists and they will all be brought to the Hippodrome this coming September to be part of ANOTHER!! celebration of Leonardo's 500th anniversary.

This one was already there. It had a man holding a bunny by it's ears as he rode the horse. Nope, I don't understand either.

However, it was a lovely park and a peaceful way to spend a morning and contemplate the end

of our trip that is.

Where's Beatrix?

Can you spot her?

Next question. Where in the World is Beatrix Stone?

Some clues.

Somewhere special.

Watching ballet

Yes, Beatrix and her Grandmother, are at Teatro Alla Scala for a performance of "Sleeping Beauty".

And a fabulous time it was!

The End

The Science Of Italy

This morning we decided to visit the Science Museum of Milan. It was a hit.

The outside is not very impressive, but inside are a series of rooms that relate to topics such as Agriculture and Food or Transportation.

We began with Agriculture and learned that Mr Zamboni,who showed us how to resurface an NHL rink in no time at all, also made it possible to make 5000 tortellinis in 1 hour.

  That's good, I guess, but it probably put many Italian ladies out of work. We learned about yeast, environmentally, friendly farming and many other food production topics.

At lunch, Shush ordered Risotto Milanese, a staple and favourite dish of the city. It was a pretty yellow colour, because of the saffron, but rather bland, she thought.

We went back to wander the Transportation areadisplay.

This was an EMC training ship. I have no idea what EMC stands for.

Bea pilots a helicopter.

And now she's in charge of a steam engine. No end of the kid's skills.

The Museum had a large display showcasing the inventions of Leonardo. To celebrate the 500th anniversary of his death, the Italian Army made over 100 of his inventions, using the diagrams the great man left. Some are full size. Some are models.

A flying machine

A helicopter

mechanical weaving loom

Under sea exploration and how to walk on water.

dredging,

Military equipment

and art. 

What a guy.

Then, after a stop for gelato, we went to the Basilica of St. Ambrose,

He is the patron saint of Milan, as well as being one of the great theologians of the Christian church. He built a church here in 380 AD. It was added to and embellished over the years. During the bombing of the city, in 1943, the church took a direct hit.
Fortunately, the gold and silver alter from the 9th C and the body of St Ambrose had been moved to the Vatican, as the Allies promised not to bomb the Vatican (so we were told).
Ambrose is safely back under the altar of his rebuilt church.

We came home. The ladies needed to get ready for a very special outing which Sheelagh will describe in the next entry.

Science, Innovation and Chairs

My wife is amazing. She finds things to do that are so cool. I wasn't sure what was in store for us yesterday. But we set off through a different part of the city to a large park. As we went we passed streets of apartment buildings, we were struck by the diversity and the greenery that people put on their balconies.



As with all cities, Milan has a variety of styles and qualities of places to live. Where we are, there are no houses. Everyone lives in flats. Many of those are quite beautiful.

At least at this time of year, flowers decorate most balconies and add charm and colour to the streets.

I would love to get inside and see what I imagine to be quite grand places.







Passing through the park, we came upon Triennale Design Museum. This, relatively modern, institution was developed to display and encourage the work of past and future Italian thinkers. One large room encircled the building and used a timeline  to mark the historical context of Italian design in household objects. Many were chairs.

Fun eh?

Some were other items of everyday use.

Cool record player.

This is an inflatable hard hat. I'm not so sure.

Early calculator, with paper printout and all.

And of course, coffee maker, much shinier than the one I have at home.

The thing that we took away from the whole place was a sense of optimism. There was a very interesting display of various innovations designed specifically to protect the planet. 

For example, here is a burial system where the body is placed in a burlap shell and buried with a tree planted above.

This was to show the waste effect of throw away batteries and to encourage the use of rechargeable. This structure was all made of triple A and 9 volt batteries.

It's really interesting. We've all had it drummed into us the benefit of using sunscreen to ward off skin cancer. Now, sunscreen has become a major polluter of our water. A good thing leads to bad consequences.

Next stop was the Castello Sforzesco, a huge, brooding structure of red brick built by the Visconti family. They moved in in 1368. They didn't enjoy it for very long, as the Sforza family seized it in 1450. They were ousted by the French in 1499. By 1893, it was pretty neglected, when the City started restoration work. It is now a very large museum housing City owned stuff. 

The most important thing it houses is the Pieta Rondanini by Michelangelo.

The last of 4 versions he created on the theme of the Madonna mourning the crucified Christ, it's unfinished. He'd been working on it for 20 years when he died at the age of 90 in 1564. It was really interesting to see how he'd changed his mind on the positioning of the figures over the years. Christ's right arm, on the left of the picture, had been moved to behind the figure.

The only other room we had energy to explore was the Music Gallery full of early examples of instruments, like this organ.

And piano/harpsichord

and guitar thing.