Day Trip- Abbeys of Lombardy

Today was the IES coordinated field trip to the abbeys of Lombardy. We started out our day walking through a heavy ploppy rainfall. As we made our way out of the city via a enormous charter-bus, the rain turned into snow, and the endless rows of building turned into fields and trees.

I loved the first church, the Certosa di Pavia. It was started in 1396 by the omnipresent Visconti family as a tribute to the Virgin Mary for answering their prayers of intercession for male heirs. Upon the birth of said sons, the Visconti's called up the Carthusian monks to build and inhabit a beautiful cathedral. The late-gothic style construction was continued by the Sforza family, as most beautiful buildings of the 1400's are in and around Milan. The nave was finished in 1465, and by then the Renaissance was in full swing and the facade was redesigned in the current style and was completely completed by

1507. The interior was done by the main architect of Milano's Duomo, with beautiful vaulting and an atypical amount of natural light. The ceiling patterns were blue starry skies and tiles, the painting were light and vivid. The blue color was all from the semi-precious stone blue lapiz and retained its beautiful vivid color un-restored after all these years. It was refreshing to see such a whimsical natural theme! After a full tour of the cathedral, the small and grand cloisters, and the dining room by a practicing monk, we headed out for lunch.

Lunch was at a fabulous pizza shop in the nearby town of Vigevano. Vigevano's claim to fame is in being a successful and thriving city strategically located in between Pavia and Milano therefore attracting attention and capture from the likes of the Visconis and (surprise) Sforzas. We got to see the charming snow-covered Ducal square- supposedly the most beautiful piazza in Italy.

Filled to the brim with culture and pizza, we re-boarded our giant, flamingly touristy charter bus with the intention of heading off to the Chiaravalle Abbey. By this point, the snow started dumping in large sticky clumps. At this point I made another cultural discovery- the Milanese handle snow about as well as Portlanders. Long story made short, our bus didn't make very rapid progress. Somewhere around 2 hours behind schedule and still miles away from our destination, the director decided to cut our losses and dump us at the nearest metro station instead of continuing on to see the final abbey. Somehow after being seated on a bus for a few hours it didn't seem like too much of a tragedy!

We trudged through the slippery, grimy slush that non-charmingly coated the streets and arrived home to find our Italian housemate/RA making lasagna for a family dinner! Our day of Cultural adventuring ended in cultural education. What a fabulous day!

Ciao for now!