We walked across the street to our train and we had already bought tickets for this leg of the trip.  The train was scheduled to leave at 8:15 and we got to the right train track.  A train pulled in at 8 and I asked a conductor if itmwasmthemtrain to Milan and she said yes.  Only problem was…it wasn’t OUR train.  We discovered this as it is pulling out of the station.  We had a talk with three conductors and since we couldn’t get off and the train was going to Milan we stayed on.  So we got in 15 minutes early.  I’m sure they deal with dumb tourists daily.  We got to our hostel that is part of the group where we stayed recently.  At the last hostel we had a large room with a single bed and bunk beds.  Perfect.  They were full, so we booked at the 2nd hostel expecting the same thing for a room for three.  Oh no…there were two double beds!  IN EVERY ROOM.  No place else to go…so we hauled the mattress off of one bed and had one real bed, one box spring bed and a mattress pallet…all three just fit in the space.  Much better than the sardine single beds at the convent in Milan…but not by too much!  

We went to see when Diane could get tickets for the Last Supper and Andy decided to see it again.  They had two different times, so I waited in a restaurant across the street for them to finish and the. We had lunch.   We left and went to see the first of the Da Vinci exhibits at the courtyard of the church where the Last Supper is.  They were his drawings and writings.  When Diane went to we the Last Supper, we went to see the old church attached to the Royal Palace.  They had just finished refurbishing the church and they were setting up for a concert.  There is a painting on the back wall of the church done by Giotto and his students of the Crucifiction.  It had been outside on the bell tower until 1929 and is heavily damaged.  It’s a wonder that there is anything left of these old masters the way they have been abused.  Like the Friars enlarging the doorway to their kitchen and destroying the feet of Jesus and several disciples in the Last Supper.  We saw the Gallaria across from the Duomo and all the pretty shops.  Back to get Diane and have Andy see the Last Supper again.  Had lunch.  Then we went to the Memorial Cemetery of Milan.  What a magnificent place.  There is a central building that looks like a huge Gothis church with side arms with arched windows and then smaller octagon building on each end.  Altho it isn’t as big as the Duomo, it is almost as impressive.  It contains the graves of anyone who was famous or important to Milan’s history.  The central huge building is a great open space with plaques on the walls with sculptures and tombs and magnificent leaded glass windows that look out onto the cemetery grounds.  A big concert was set up in this space with orchestra and choir to perform in a bit.  All along the arched arms were small crypts, maybe for ashes and larger tombs with sculptures that were amazing.  At one end I walked down a couple of flights of stairs to the Jewish burial ground.  Row after row of beautiful tombs.  In the center was a huge building and the walls were all made of stained glass depicting scenes from the Torah.  There was a big memorial to the Jews from Milan who were part of the Resistance and ones who died in the camps.  In two different spots in this section were simple rounded tombstones that were either very old or from poorer people.  Just plain with the inscriptions worn almost off.  Each stone had a number on it, probably to denote who was buried there and the office would have a record.  Beautiful trees, flowers, shrubs and vines all over this area.  Then, I walked to the opposite side of the cemetery to the Protestant cemetery that was a separate area just like the Jewish section.  And it was just as lovely.  After that, a stroll through part of the ret of the massive grounds.  One of the most impressive tombs is that of the Campari family…a larger than life-sized rendition of the Last Supper in bronze.  The table and all 12 apostles sitting around it.  Jesus standing in the center.  After this stroll, it was time for the concert, so I returned to the central building.  Turns out, this day and the concert were to commemorate Italy’s Memorial Day for victory in WWII.  Our Memorial Day is the next day.  The orchestra and choir did Hayden’s Mass #11 and it was beautiful.  We walked back to our hostel a few blocks away and stopped for dinner.  If and when I go back to Milan, I want to fix a lunch and spend the entire day at that cemetery.  It is awe inspiring!  With all of the ornate grave structures it is as impressive in the opposite way as the simplicity of our Military cemeteries.