the Last Supper - Milan with the fam

My mom was really looking forward to seeing the Last Supper painting while in Milan. We booked reservations a couple months before for the 15-minute viewing. Small groups are let in to view the painting... which is really an entire wall, and first we had to go through a dehumidifying process before entering.

People are not allowed to take photos of the original wall but we were able to photograph a much smaller replica outside the refectory:

Our tickets:

(Note: if trying to book reservations and having trouble... [the website was down when we tried], you can call... but I had much more luck staying on the Italian line than the English line... which no one ever answered. The tickets are only 8 euro each if you go for just the viewing... more expensive prices can be found but then are a piece of a larger tour.)

Leonardo da Vinci painted the Last Supper in the last 15th century in a convent's refectory within the city of Milan.

This wall painting is as incredible in person as it is popularly known. The problem is that da Vinci painted on a dry wall instead of al fresco (wet plaster) as was usually done. The painting has slowly been flaking off for more than 400 years now. I appreciate that much is being done to try and preserve the painting as much as possible. Interestingly (and horrifyingly enough), the painting refectory was hit by a bomb in World War II and the painting took on much destruction, as well as dirt, pollution, and weathering.

To read more about the history of the actual Last Supper... there is a good article on Wikipedia here.