Your Grand Milan Sightseeing Tour Including The Last Supper starts from Foro Bonaparte 76 (MM1 Cairoli) in Milan at 0930h (09:30am) and 1430h (2:30pm). For the first part of your excursion, you will board a coach for a panoramic tour of the city of Milan with an expert guide.
Places you will see on the walking tour include:
La Scala Opera House: Milan’s world-renowned opera house, home to the La Scala Theatre Ballet and La Scala Theatre Orchestra.
Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II: A stunning 19th century covered shopping area consisting of two glass-vaulted arcades at right angles intersecting in an octagon. An important step in the evolution of the modern shopping mall.
Duomo: Milan’s cathedral and one of the largest churches in the world. Commissioned in 1386, it took more than four centuries to build and wasn’t finished until the early 1800s. The result is a surprisingly elegant mix of styles and a building that boasts 135 spires and 3,400 statues.
Castello Sforzesco: A former fortress, it now houses a collection of furniture, artefacts, and sculptures. Look out for Michelangelo’s unfinished Pieta Rondanini.
The highlights of your coach trip include:
Arco della Pace (Arch of Peace): A triumphal arch commissioned by Napoleon in 1806 and finally inaugurated by the Austrian Emperor in 1838.
Cadorna: Milan’s railway station.
Santa Maria delle Grazie (Our Lady of Grace): A famous church and Dominican convent and home of Leonardo da Vinci’s magnificent mural of the ‘Last Supper’, which was painted onto the wall of the convent refectory.
Sant'Ambrogio (Basilica of St Ambrose): Originally built in 379-386, this is one of Milan’s oldest churches. It has undergone many partial reconstructions over the centuries and the building you see today is mostly in Romanesque style (11th century).
Corso Venezia: One of Milan’s most fashionable shopping streets.
Piazza San Babila: Famous as a meeting place for affluent Milanese.
Piazza Fontana: Site of a devastating terrorist attack in December 1969 when a bomb exploded at the headquarters of the National Agrarian Bank.
The coach tour takes about 1 hour and 15 minutes. You will leave the coach with your guide and set off on a walking tour.
You will board the coach for the drive to the church and convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie to see Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece the ‘Last Supper’. Renowned for realism ahead of its time, this mural portrays the emotional response of each of the Apostles when Jesus predicts that one of them will betray him. All twelve Apostles react differently to the news, showing various degrees of anger and shock.
Leonardo’s painting has suffered much damage over the years, and to protect this unique work, only a small number of visitors are allowed to view it at any one time. The painting features prominently in Dan Brown's bestseller, ‘The Da Vinci Code’, with a resulting increase in the number of people wanting to see it.
After seeing the ‘The Last Supper’, you will board the vehicle to return to the starting point, where the tour ends.