This was Day 9 of our tour, and while Tauck kept up the pace with plans for a special day trip to Lake Como, all I really wanted to do was relax and drink cappuccinos at our lovely hotel. Being a tourist is hard work, you know!
Our friends from the boat had been to Lake Como, and we were headed there on our own after the tour, so they convinced us to play hooky for the day and go off on our own little field trip to delve a bit into Milan's history.
Thus, dreams of cappuccinos and relaxation were left behind and off we went to visit Milan's sprawling Castello Sforzesco.
We'd passed by the massive castle complex a few times by bus and our curiosity was piqued by its sheer size. It was originally built by Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan in the fifteenth century. Enlarged and renewed over time, work continues even today, notably in the painstaking restoration of the Sala delle Asse, a room painted in a fanciful trompe-l'oeil garden theme by Leonardo da Vinci.
Another of the Castle's treasures is Michelangelo's Rondanini Pietà , an unfinished sculpture he worked on from 1552 until his death in 1564.
We traipsed around the castle grounds and museum trying to take it all in but of course only scratching the surface of centuries of noble Italian history.
Just as my longing for a cappuccino break resurfaced, our intrepid friends suggested we hoof it over to another museum they'd read about - honestly, these friends were even more ambitious than our Tauck tour taskmasters!
The Poldi Pezzoli Museum is a sliver of the size of the Castello, but jammed with every manner of art and collectible acquired by the 19th century Count Gian Giacomo Poldi Pezzoli.
In addition to an important temporary exhibit featuring the work of 15th century Renaissance painter Piero della Francesca - here his depiction of "angel Michael, power of God" (and no, those are not Nikes but "imperial boots"):
- there were numerous rooms filled with art and artifacts.
The long departed Count Pezzoli apparently determined that he couldn't take it all with him but that he could leave it behind for weary tourists to behold. Absolutely worth the price of admission but I really needed that cappuccino by this point…
Mercifully, our friends suggested it was time for lunch. Rome wasn't built in a day and Milano was not going to be discovered in one morning. Pranzo awaited!
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