When Nick and I awoke at about 9 am, he said he would like to go to Milan’s cemetery, Il Cimitero Monumentale. I wasn’t as enthusiastic about going as he was, because we had been there before, and because the outdoor temperature would again be in the nineties. However, the cemetery is  famous for being a fantastic resting place in which the tombs display art of different eras. I agreed to go.

The last time we were at Milan’s cemetery, we walked there and back in the summer heat. This time we took Ubers both ways.

In Italy, one does not buy a cemetery plot. Plots are rented, formerly for 100 years, but now, for up to 30 years. At that time the remains are removed to make room for the next renter. We both remembered that we had previously seen the graves of WW I soldiers, but  as WW I  happened more than 100 years ago, they were no longer there. Instead, we saw many statues of heartbroken angels, weeping widows, and  grim reapers.  The statue of The Last Supper was amazing!

We were getting hungry. We are fans of Rick Steves, and have learned a lot about travel from him. He suggests that travelers avoid restaurants that have printed  glossy menus and instead frequent the ones that have a short menu written on a chalkboard, because you can be sure that the chef is cooking fresh foods that way.

Nick loves salads. We saw a restaurant that displayed glossy photos of its offerings. We sat down. Nick ordered a salad of lettuce, radicchio, carrots, corn, and smoked salmon, which made him very happy. When  I did not find anything appealing on the menu, the waiter insisted that I wanted to order the salmon.  I didn’t. Actually what I wanted was to leave! I ordered a panino and was okay with that.

In the afternoon, we would have our final opportunity to visit a place of interest. We were able to get tickets to the La Scala Opera House Museum, arguably the most prestigious opera house in the world. La Scala opened in 1778.  Many objects that belonged to  famous composers are on display. We were able to peek into the theater, and were taken aback by  the size of the seating area, and also, by the size of the stage. They are both  enormous! Someone  in the crew was trying out props in various locations, and  the technical crew (sound and lighting people) were working on their arrangements.

Nick pointed out that  we were standing next to the royal box. Among the royalty who had occupied the box were Prince Charles and Princess Diana in 1985.

Nick was able to get a reservation at the restaurant that was fully booked the night before, that he found on Yelp! Nick ordered grilled octopus over grilled veggies, and I chose  homemade pasta  pesto with sun dried tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, and olives. Every forkful was a treasure! For dessert, we shared an order of  grilled fresh peach halves,  with vanilla gelato and a mild caramel sauce. This was our best dinner in Milan!

When we  arrived back at our  room in the Guest House, we could not get the lights to go on. Nick tried every switch in the room, with no success. We texted the number that had been given to us, and had a sort of “comedy of errors,” with many exchanges of texts, such as “Turn on the switch behind the door,” which we tried to do, but we were still in the dark. Finally, Nick found the one switch that he hadn’t  tried earlier, and that did the trick. We called it an early night, because we were leaving Italy the next morning.

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