I know that sounds like DUH — but SERIOUSLY, I’m not kidding – this man was brilliant! So yesterday, we spent most of our time at the National Museum of Science and Technology with our buddy Leonardo.
What an amazing man! He contributed so much to Italy and the world. The museum was filled with all kinds of exhibits on energy, telecommunications, mineral extraction, recycling, and many more – along with re-creation models of the inventions Da Vinci made. The volume, depth, and breadth of his work just boggled a little mind like mine.
The museum even had an homage to The Last Supper, painted in 1629 – which we were grateful for because when I asked at our hotel reception desk to arrange tickets to see the original, they told me, “Sure – for next month!” Yes – we were just a little bit behind the eight-ball there. Oh, we could have dropped in to see if they had a cancellation of the 15-minute tour (you see, only 15 people enter at a time after being dehydrated in a holding cell to preserve the painting). But – Maylene and I decided that we could spend the ~20E a better way and instead enjoyed the reproduction and as well, the original on Google images! 😉 All utterances of apology and humble condolence to our PhD Italian Art History expert and very good friend….errrmmm…. Yes, we are most definitely lame.
Back to the museum though – it was quite large and the buildings were formerly a monastery in the 1500s – it was nice to enjoy the courtyard and the architecture along the way. Here is a re-creation of a medieval monk’s apothecary – complete with alligators on leashes. What a welcoming atmosphere!
The museum tried to have a very hands-on feel, especially in the technology sections. It really tried – but fell a bit short in execution. Like most museums, they had many non-working displays. Here’s Maylene reliving her childhood (look familiar Ma? Heeheehee).
After the museum, we wandered around the Navigli neighborhood which is basically an area that Leonardo created when he engineered the canals that filled Milan and allowed for easier transport. Now the canals are mostly dried-up and nasty but the neighborhood has a lot of interesting dining options – if you can manage not to inhale too many tiny gnats along the way — yummm…. We walked around and around checking out the various choices – of which only 50% of the shops were open but we still felt there were plenty to choose from. We finally settled upon Japanese – our first of the trip and it was pretty decent – it’s pretty hard to mess up tempura but still possible. The sliced cantaloupe for dessert was nice. Almost as nice as the beaded dog and dolphin keychains we received instead of fortune cookies from a Chinese restaurant in Prague. They now have permanent positions on our backpacks.
What a beautiful area though! On the building/street corner, we saw that it was constructed in 1555. My oh my – I love the humbling feeling Europe gives me on a daily basis – thanks for the lessons universe!
And speaking of lessons, after learning more about Da Vinci at the musuem – I did a little more research when we got back (free, working wifi – yeah!) and found out that he was most likely, a gay man – as was Michelangelo. I know this likely won’t be news to many people, but it was to me and made me think about how few gay role models there are for the young ‘uns. In the end, I suppose it doesn’t matter either way – he is still an amazing contributor to our society – and maybe that’s the point…