We got to sleep in today! We both woke up sometime after 9, got ready and went downstairs for the breakfast buffet. It was a good one too! Scrambled eggs that actually looked like eggs, breads and jams, jellies, and cream cheese, smoked salmon, bacon, fruit.. coffee and several types of juices.. and the highlight to Mom’s morning: PANCAKES!
I had already made myself a salmon and cream cheese “bagel” when I saw them, so I’m saving them for another day. The food was delicious and the atmosphere was very nice, with a cute fish tank beside our table giving us free entertainment. I should be embarrassed by how long I watched those fish..
We went back to the room to get some stuff and then started walking towards the Duomo. It was so crowded today! People everywhere, including street performers dancing! We took our time, taking pictures and people watching, and staring at the gorgeous buildings in awe. We continued on to the plaza our tour of Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” was at. Since we were early, we went to a cafe on the corner to sip some water, rest, and use the restroom.
When the tour did start, it was only a group of 5 of us. Seeing this, I think that’s why the rest of our big tour today was canceled.. not enough people. We were supposed to be on a 6 hour tour that included The Last Supper, but also included going inside the Duomo and a history tour on the way to where we were currently standing. It worked out though, because had it not been canceled, we would have had to get up early today.
Anyway, our tour guide wasn’t quite as entertaining as our Parisian guide at the Louvre, but I enjoyed her all the same. I could tell Mom was struggling to understand her, because she spoke fast and had that beautiful Italian “ehh” attached to the end of most words.. which I loved. She told us the history of Leonardo da Vinci creating the painting, his techniques, and how lucky we are that it’s survived for so long.
It took him 4 years to paint it, on a wall inside this church hall. It was painted in the dining hall, and the kitchen was the door right under the painting, so a lot of steam came up through the door, causing some damage. Plus the technique he used caused the paint to disintegrate over time. In the 1970s someone started the restoration process and it took over 20 years to complete it. Also, during WWII, they put sandbag walls in front of it to protect it as much as possible, a bomb literally destroyed the entire building except for that wall and the wall across from it containing the painting of the crucifixion.
Pretty incredible, really. I loved the tour and soaked up as much of what our guide told us as I could. Before we knew it, the hour was over and we were released back into the hoards of people. We walked the streets and popped in and out of little shops that we passed. Almost all of them were so stupidly expensive, like €480 for a shirt. It was nuts.. when we came to a store that felt like Europe’s Old Navy, I was thrilled!
I ended up getting some shirts and a dress. I even took the time to try them on first. Who am I? Haha-actually, I knew we wouldn’t be coming back for me to return them if they didn’t work, so, best to be sure! Sometime around 4 our stomachs started talking to us. We stopped at a little Poke Bowl place and had their smallest option, which was very good! We didn’t want to be too full to eat dinner tonight, because I made us reservations at the rooftop restaurant at our hotel.
We dropped my clothes off at the hotel and continued walking to find more shoe stores for Mom. She came up empty handed though, because none of the shoes she found were the kind she was looking for. So we made our way back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. We wore our dresses (I wore the one I just bought) and cute sandals and hoped that counted as enough elegance for them to let us in since they have a dress code for the restaurant and bar.
The views were gorgeous from up there! We snapped some pictures and then followed the hostess to our seats. We had wine and coffee (the man was flabbergasted that Mom wanted an americano before dinner lol), different types of bread to dip in oil, and then our main dishes. I chose the risotto which was awesome, Mom got the beef Wellington, which was even better than my risotto. She shared 🙂 even though she wouldn’t even try my risotto.
We each got desert, too. Strawberry cheesecake for me, Tiramisu for her.. when I tell you I was stuffed, Lord I needed a wheelchair to get out of there! The entire dinner took just over 2 hours, but it didn’t feel like it was that long of a meal. Everything was timed out perfectly. The music was fun, and the entire atmosphere was exciting. When we finally got back to our room, I was asleep within minutes! I was in a food and wine coma!