It’s been 10 months since I was last in Italy! I've been to Milan before, of course, on two guided trips, in 2017 and 2018, one Medieval themed and one centred on the Renaissance. They’d left me with the need to see more, in a more lingering way, of the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, the Poldi Pezzoli Museum, and the Brera. Added to this is the fact of Milan’s Monumental Cemetery being very  famous and unmissable. And Turin isn’t far away, and also has a reportedly special cemetery. So I’ll not want for stuff to do. Oh, and I’m thinking of making Milan’s churches the subject of a new page. They were only experienced in a tantalisingly unlingering way before too.

Wednesday April 23rd
After a night's sleep at the Gatwick Hilton I had to get me to the north terminal around 7.30 for my 9.30 easyJet. Which was achieved, after some initial lostness. All the bag drop and security business was quick. (But did you know you should empty your pockets of everything, even tissues, when you go through the body scanner?!) Breakfast was a Pret Americano and spicy apple muffin. I was seated in row 2, my lowest row number ever. No serious delay to the flight. The Metro into Milan was pretty quick, my hotel easy to find, my room pretty faultless, with free water and soft drinks, lots of hangers, complimentary bathrobe and slippers and bar of sophisto chocolate. There was a kettle and cups too, and only one spurious cushion. All very unusual for Italy, and the hotel is only 3 star.

It was late for lunch by the time I'd packed and settled, by my hour-forward watch, if not my belly, so I made for the nearest Burger King, in the Stazione Cordona, for a midafternoon lunch/dinner, walking via the extremities of the Castello Sforzesco. I found a surprisingly good cinnamon twist in a station coffee bar too, to take later with tea, and had my first gelato, from Venchi, a coppa of fior di latte and caramel & rosemary.

I made a late afternoon hotelward bound start on the churches taking in San Maurizio, which I belatedly realised was the church with the fab Luini frescoes that smote me on my first visit (see above right) . I then found and photographed some obscurities, before a dawdle in Sant'Agostino, another solid highlight (see right). By which time the feet were aching a bit and I was craving cake.

Thursday April 24th
The breakfast here is fine. Coffee and orange juice from machines, pineapple chunks in a large tumbler and pots of yogurt. All acceptable, with a more than acceptable croissants and cake selection.

Today's plan is to begin visiting churches, on the way to the Monumental Cemetery, and see how far I get. San Tomaso was a solidly OK start, with some modest but sweet fresco frags and an unusual pseudo-Roman floor mosaic. Santa Maria del Carmine was bigger and better, but San Marco topped the morning. Somewhat tastelessly baroquedup up in the 17th century (and thereby becoming the second largest church in Milan, after the Duomo) but with enough original frescoes more recently discovered, with the baroque nastiness then chipped away, to reveal them and make this church a treat. There is medieval and Luini-attributed stuff, and a large fresco panel in the first left chapel by Gian Paolo Lomazzo.

And then came the cemetery. Arguably the most famous in Italy, it's been on my list for ages, and boy did it not disappoint! I only did the bottom left hand corner as my mind was becoming so boggled. I'm planning on coming back at least once more this week. At one stage I spotted a cat peeking out from a monument, (see right) but when I approached she retreated into the stonework and vanished. I later encountered the cemetery cat  ladies, who had pulled up in a car to feed a basking black cat. Asking about the cat I'd seen, I showed them my photo and they identified Spaventina who lives, and hides, in that very memorial.

I returned, footsore, via the Garibaldi station, and a cafe where I sat down to a mozzarella and tomato ciabatta, a packet of lime and pink-pepper crisps and a bottle of peach iced tea - my classic Italian trip lunch. I picked up a pear and chocolate triangolo for taking with tea too, and Metro'd it back to my hotel, discovering that you can use a credit card at the ticket gates just like in London.

Another South-Westerly walk finding churches in the evening. I found Sant'Alessandro and San Lorenzo considerably covered in scaffolding, and that San Vincenzo in Prato is odd, and has a crypt under the presbytery. It was nearly 7.00 and a service had just finished but I thought I'd have a quick look at the crypt. If you've ever been in a crypt when the attendant turns the lights off you'll know how shocking it can be. On my way back the Metro gate mysteriously rejected the debit card I'd used earlier so I had to use another one.

Friday April 25th
Breakfast this morning had added integrale croissants with frutti di bosco jam, which were tasty, and I really must try the pancake grill one morning. Today is Liberation Day so the state museums have free opening, so I'm thinking not a day for the comfortable visiting of the Brera. But the Museo Poldi Pezzoli and Pinacoteca Ambrosiana are not state run, so might be the less visited what with all the culture vultures off in search of freebies.

But beginning by finding a few churches and then getting into the holiday closed-shops and empty streets vibe I got sidetracked. San Raffaele was baroque and closed, San Fedele was covered in scaffolding and projected adverts, San Marco (the other one) was also baroque and closed. San Babila was open, looked interesting, but had a service on. Santa Maria delle Passione was preparing, with lots of dressed-up people milling and a choir warming up. The bride arrived, and the church's large crossing quickly filled up. So many people! Santa Maria della Pace was so fenced in, and barriered, that you couldn't even see the façade, let alone photograph it, and Santi Barnaba e Paolo had the sun behind it, making it tricky to photograph. But in front of it was a coffee bar kiosk, which didn't have a mozzarella and tomato on display, but the nice woman offered to make me one, with rocket even, when I asked nicely. A park nearby made for a good sit down. More churches followed on a looping long walk back. Well San Francesco di Sales didn't as it had turned into a office block. San Piero dei Pellegrini was found and photographed, but seemed to be fronting an underground car park, Santa Maria al Paradiso was a new (map) discovery, Santa Maria dei Miracoli looks major, but it's architecture and gates mean that when it's closed you can't hardly see it. The same effect was brought about by churchyard trees with Santa Maria della Visitazione but San Calimero nearby was in plain sight, if a little suggestive of a squid saint. Getting back to my hotel involved getting caught in a crowd trying to get through roadworks via the minimal corridors provided, and fighting through the liberation day hoards in Piazza del Duomo (there were barriers, banners and police, but I'm not sure what was actually going on) pausing only to purchase a cinnamon bun from a joint called 12oz, for some reason.

Having remembered tasty dinners at branches of La Piadineria previously, I checked for a local branch and there's loads, two being so near my hotel it's a wonder I couldn't smell the hummus. But this was explained by the fact that my fave wrap was off the menu. This was explained so brusquely that I went off in a huff to another branch, and was told, politely, that it was now totally off everywhere. So I tried a different wrap, and it was nicer! It was called La Supergreen - their website describes as 'a roll of fragrant and soft Khorasan dough lying and cooked at the moment, stuffed with delicious planted vegetable rags, lettuce, tomato and vegan mayonnaise.' Strolling back my gelato was uve fragola and vanilla, and... interesting.

Saturday April 26th
More churches on the way to the cemetery is the plan. Opposite Santa Maria Podone, near the hotel, is a very pretty courtyard, where an officious passing resident told me I could not take photos. I thanked him for his welcome. I then found a small crumbling brick church that wasn't Santa Maria alla Porta, and a stout stone-faced one up the road which was. San Sisto. (The one that wasn't turned out to be San Matteo alla Bacchetta.) I passed a chemist with a display of Marvis toothpaste, but the small cinnamon flavour tube was out of stock. I'd tried a different pharmacy on Thursday, and four more in the week, all with the same tragic result. Then into San Lorenzo, covered in scaffolding but wonderful within (see right) . A tall plain-stone centrally-planned hexagon with alternating wide and narrow bays. A very pleasing space. Some nice panels, conches and arches of mosaic and fresco, especially in the radiating chapels, and most especially in the one that costs €2.

I then got some lunch in a Pam and caught the Metro up to the cemetery. The ticket I bought got me through the entrance barrier alright but didn't want to work on any of the exit gates at Monumentale. There were no staff to be seen, so I tried each gate, and after the 6th warning beep the last gate opened of it's own accord, so I presume someone was watching on CCTV, or maybe a friendly bot took pity on me.

I knew what to expect from the cemetery, having visited on Thursday, but it just keeps on giving. I found my way into the Famedio (see right), maneuvering around the red tape and barriers, which also gets you into some wings and upper level corridors in the main block, and provides views over. I made it as far as the crematorium, which had a room with what looked like a row of cupboards (see below) but which handily had a door open, to an old blackened oven. But mostly I wandered, ate my lunch on a stone bench, and saw some little lizards, but no cats. The Metro back to the hotel had no failures and I found a shop near my hotel that does dried fruit and nuts and stuff. I bought some dried ginger (which turned out to be too hot to eat) and apple pieces, both with cinnamon.

In the evening I had another Supergreen, from the (large and empty) Padiniera round the back of the hotel. And they also do Chinotto!

Sunday April 27th
I had started adding my recent church visits and findings to my (hard copy!) list last night, so I had then made a list of nearby visits needed, to churches that would be open. San Giorgio al Palazzo was open, with only an elderly attendant shuffling and clanking around clearing out old candle trays. The church is smallish, but has lights in the chapels. Also one chapel is full of Bernardino Luini. One is told by art historians to imagine churches in darkness, with only candles, as they would originally have been. For my next visit, Sant'Alessandro, no such imagination was needed. The façade is totally covered in scaffolding and sheeting, but the door was open. Inside there was only minimal lighting, of the high altar, the pulpit, some chapels and from very few windows at clerestory level, mostly with stained glass. And totally empty of life. It was very atmospheric, not to say spooky. But describing (for one's website) what one can't see is tricky. I will return. Sant'Eufamia was easy to find, except it wasn't Sant'Eufamia, it was San Paulo Converso, and Sant'Eufamia was to its left and a little further back from the road. It was pretty 19th century inside, but it was warming up for a service. Santa Maria dei Miracoli presso San Celso was next, but a service was starting here too, announced by the loudest, most raucous bells you ever heard. A large congregation, of all ages, turned up, with sevaral dogs.

Sant'Eustorgio has the Portinari Chapel with the famous raised tomb of St Peter Martyr, which you can process under and touch the base of to cure your headache. And today (only) the head relic of the saint, in its reliquary, was placed in front of the tomb on an imitation altar (see right). I learned all this from a friendly chap on the ticket desk, who had lived in Crystal Palace, and so we got talking about London. I got to linger a bit in the church, whilst a choir practiced, but we all got chucked out around 12.30 and I decided to check out the art in the diocesan museum. There's lots here, but divided confusingly into different collections. One of the best is without provenance information, but that was fine because it meant I could concentrate on the admiration rather than the note taking. And with no glass in the way. As I was leaving a woman passing said 'I understand that you are a cockney!' She must have overheard my earlier conversation. She was Czech and had lived in London for 12 years. On my way back to the hotel I got a tasty endamame and sun-dried tomato sandwich from a Pam, which I think I've had before, and a slice of apple and almond tart, with cinnamon, from another place. At one point a couple with two small children were walking ahead of me, and the father's backpack was, it seemed, brought to hold, a child's fluffy toy, but it was an actual fluffy ginger cat, peering out through a porthole in the back.

In the evening I made for Santa Maria delle Grazie, the church that has the Leonardo Last Supper attached. My info was that it stays open until 9.00, which seemed unlikely, but I assumed no service, what with me being there well before 6.00. I was wrong. I strolled, admiring the early 20th century Liberty apartment blocks, to Santa Maria Segreta, which was a surprising small feast of early 20th century fresco decoration. Santa Maria della Consolazione.

Monday April 28th
It's looking like this morning I'll be walking the same streets as yesterday, to do the full-length church visiting and writing that I couldn't do yesterday when services happened. But I'm hoping for breezier progress as I did manage much photography and side visits. I began somewhere new on this trip, though - Santa Maria Presso San Satiro, with its famous illusionistic apse. The spectacularly circular San Sebastiano was open, but Sant'Alessandro was still unlit. After failing again to buy toothpaste I got to Santa Maria dei Miracoli presso San Celso which is a bit over-decorated and has an ambulatory full of confessionals. As I was leaving the attendant cleaning the silverware told me I couldn't take photos. Now he tells me! Sant'Eustorgia is much more my style, with its plainness and considerable fresco fragments (see right). That completes my repeats. A focaccia cipolla was acquired from Carrefour. San Sepulcro near my hotel was oddly open, and oddly full of tableaux around the walls, but a service began before I could investigate, oddly enough.

To Santa Maria delle Grazie again in the evening, via The American Bookshop I passed yesterday. An eccentric place where they also sell tins, and I found a pleasantly jazzy one for vanilla redbush tea, so had to have it. The church is also a bit eccentric, with lots of circular decoration, and ceiling painting featuring worms, or maybe they're Visconti snakes. Back via the Sempione park above the Sforza castle, and through the castle itself. I couldn't help noticing that the Leonardo-decorated room, which was undergoing restoration last time I was here, in 2018, still is.

Tuesday April 29th
So, my last day. I know my plan was to not be too obsessed with ticking off churches and to hang out in galleries and castles a bit, but the churches have been so varied and interesting, and there's a promising unvisited bunch clustered south east of the Duomo. And there's the possibility of a last visit to the cemetery. On my way to Santo Stefano I passed the Duomo and a party of young people all wearing VR goggles. Santo Stefano was a bit unmemorable. But most memorable was how, oddly, in each bay was hanged a framed canvas of episodes from the the Life of St Anna. Also unusual are the 19th century stained glass lunettes in all the chapels. Of historical note are the facts that Caravaggio was christened here on the 30th September 1571 and, outside the church, on 26th december 1476, Galeazzo Maria Sforza was assassinated. San Bernardino delle Osse next door is a centrally planed pale octagon. The osse in the name is because off of the narthex is the Ossary, a large macabre chapel full of wall cases of bones - skulls and tibiae mostly (see right). San Babila needed a revisit, after I'd found a service on on Sunday. And today there was also a service on! San Fedele was pleasant, and San Giuseppe was unusual for being small. But after a morning of quantity rather than quality, churches-wise, there was nothing to do but catch the Metro up to the Monumentale for my last visit this trip. Funerals in films always take place in the rain, but sunshine is good for photographic light and shade.

Wednesday April 30th
My casual morning before my 1.30 flight was given last-minute purpose by talking to a couple I'd been discussing church visits with at breakfast yesterday and he recommending San Nazzaro, which I'd not been in. I'd got the impression his taste ran to the more medieval and the key word Romanesque had been mentioned. When you enter it's into an octagonal Mausoleum, then the church itself is aisleless with no side chapels. Plain, so that the only decoration is the stone work of the vaulting, pillars and columns. Lovely. The most Romanesque church in Milan and I nearly missed it. On my way back to the hotel San Sepolcro was open, without a service on this time, so I was able to take photos, including the two terracotta tableaux of Scenes of the Passion.

Checking out, saying goodbye and promising to return, catching the Metro to Linate, no queue at bag drop, and not much queue at security was all good. The flight was announced as expected 25 minutes late, but such is life. As is it ending up leaving an hour and forty minutes late.

I liked almost everything about Milan. Having to be careful to not come a cropper by slipping into the tram tracks got a bit tedious, as did not being able to get small tubes of cinnamon toothpaste for love or money. I liked the churches, though. Not primarily for the art inside, which is usually my thing, but the shear variety and interest (and often oddity) of the architecture, even in churches best described as baroque.

Spot the cat, called Spaventina, who lives here






The tomb of Mazzoni in the Famedio.