May 15

pictures: view from our window, picnic, outside of the monastery-hotel, Duomo (Milan), Santa Maria delle Grazie

Owen had a bit of trouble sleeping, so we were all up for the day by 1:30. Needless to say, we were all tired when we arrived at Santa Maria delle Grazie to pick up our reserved tickets to see Cenacolo Vinciano, da Vinci’s Last Supper. We had to wait a bit since they did not have tickets for us (some confusing story about payment not arriving by one week in advance although we have a confirmation number – I’ll have to look back at the actual credit card statement to make sure we didn’t buy tickets twice! I was sure to get the refunds address just in case.) By the time we actually got in to see it, Owen was asleep in my trusty wrap. It is in a part of the church which was damaged during WWII and is now a sealed viewing room. We also looked at the rest of the church (for free) before heading to the Duomo. Owen slept for more than two hours in the wrap while we walked about. We finally headed back to our room where Owen was able to continue his nap a few more hours and we got some sleep too.
We ventured out in the rain and bought a couple of umbrellas, visited the park Owen found yesterday, and picked up a picnic at a small deli. We had a grand picnic in our room: onions sautéed in olive oil and balsamic vinegar, dried tomato salad with oregano and olive oil, mixed steamed seafood (including octopus, squid, mussels, and shrimp) with olive oil, prosciutto, and wine – yum! Owen called the octopus suckers feet and ate them up! He really liked the prosciutto.