Milan or Milano lies in the heart of Italy's Lombardy province. While the rest of Italy is about history, art, architecture, Milan strikes out as Italy's modern face. It's industrial and with big industrial money comes great style - Milan is one of the fashion capitals of the world. Milano is the place where the ideas of Georgio Armani, Versace, Prada and Gabana of Dolce and Gabana took shape. For us though, Milano strikes as being Leonardo Da Vinci's city. It's here that Leonardo spent a significant part of his professional life and produced many of his scientific and artistic masterpieces. 

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452 - 1519) was a polymath. He spent his most productive time in Milan during the reign of the house of Sforza between 1482 and 1499 and produced a vast majority of his work there including the famous mural - the Last Supper. The reigning duke of Milan gave him a place to stay in his castle and also a salary - in the medieval world, for a common man - that too illegitimate - that meant that Leonardo stumbled upon a fortune.

He was a polymath - in essence that means that the lines between Science, Art, Architecture, Engineering, Music and Religion didn't exist for him. He made musical instruments and played them, he did detailed sketches and exhaustive work on anatomy of animals and humans, he was employed as an artist, town planner, hydraulics specialist and even a ship and aircraft designer. After his death 13000 pages of his unpublished work were recovered. Leonardo was a famous starter - not given to finishing his work - perhaps because he was such a perfectionist. Even the famous Mona Lisa - is actually unfinished. 

Unlike many of the renaissance greats, Da Vinci did not actually produce any models of his work (except perhaps musical instruments), he mostly provided blueprints for them. 

He was one of the forefathers of modern engineering and a personal hero for us.

A master city plan by Leonardo - the city planner. During the medieval times they knew that stagnent water was a carrier of disease so Leonardo designed a city which has flowing water. He layed out a blueprint and this model was constructed based on that blueprint. At the Leonardo Science and technology museum in Milan.

A model water pump constructed from the designs of Leonardo the Hydraulic engineer featuring gears and pulleys to draw water in the Leonardo Science and technology museum in Milan.

Musical Instruments designs by Leonardo the Musician in the Leonardo Science and technology museum in Milan.

Human heart description by Leonardo the Anatomist- At the Leonardo Science and technology museum in Milan.

The Santa Maria Delle Grazzie hosting the last supper - by Leonardo the theologian and artist. . Photography inside is prohibited but you can see it all over the net 

The Milan Duomo (Latin Domus meaning house or covered by roof or the Sanskrit DhAma or the English Home) is one of the largest and oldest christian monuments in the world. The construction of the current, marble surfaced building took almost 600 years to complete starting in the 14th century - however a Christian building has existed here since as early as the 4th century. In fact Milan was the capital city for a while of Emperor Constantino. It was in Milan though Constantine legalized Christianity with the Edict of Milan proclamation. Emperor Constantine later embraced Christianity and declared it as the state religion and eventually abolished the worship of the pagan Roman gods after he shifted his capital to Byzantium later called Constantinople and eventually called Istanbul - the third holiest city of Christianity after Jerusalem and Rome. 
The Duomo also has one of the nails that used to crucify Jesus Christ. Helena the mother of Constantine was an early convert and a relic gatherer. 

The 3rd century baptistery below the duomo floor - it was discovered when the digging was started to setup the metro line. Observe the ducts for flowing water - this is ancient Roman design at work - they obsessed about flowing water.

As they were completing the Duomo, they started running out of funds and instead of carving the ceiling, they just painted it - yep - that is a painting - an optical illusion!

A sculpture of St. Barthlomeo in the Duomo. The apostle - one of the 12 direct disciples of Jesus Christ - was flayed and crucified. He is portrayed here with his skin flayed and hung across his shoulder. 

The Sculpture was made by - Marco d'Agrate in 1565 is anatomically accurate. It's no coincidence that d'Agrate was a student of Leonardo Da Vinci and one can sense how medieval thought was giving way gradually to Renaissance humanism which in-turn gave birth to modern science!

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II - A shopping mall - one of the earliest ever - infact many of the latter malls are called Galleria after this one. This was constructed in mid 19th century when iron grill domes with glass ceilings were considered the epitome of construction engineering - combining beauty with solidity.

King Vittorio Emanuele was the regent who re-unified many disparate provinces to form the country of Italy after the decline of the Roman empire in the 6th century. He setup his capital - you guessed it - in Milan. He built commissioned this building to be built next to the Duomo and it has become an important monument of its own right. 

The Famous drink Campari was invented close to Milan and sold here first in the Galleria in Milan

We recall seeing full page advertisements of this drink in Time magazines in the 1980s in India. Remember the slogan - "Campari, Nothing less".

The Sforza Castle. The seat of Milan's power from the 14th through the early part of the 20th century. Starting as the head office of the Duchy of Milan it was an important city of the kingdom of Italy in the 19th and 20th centuries. The Visconti, Sforza and Savoy familes lived here as did their garrisons and the artists, sculptors, scholars and other luminaries of those times. 

This where Leonardo lived and produced his work from. One can easily envisage him walking or taking a horse driven carriage to Santa Maria Delle Grazzie church to complete the last supper.

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