Friday, June 15

Welcome! Here are pictures from some of today's activities. We all arrived safely and all are well.

Awaiting boarding at Newark Airport

The basses after arriving in Milan

Our first stop in Milan, the Sporza Castle.

The fourth largest gothic cathedral in the world, the Duomo was inspiring to even us sleep deprived tourists! This cathedral took over 600 years to complete!

After a long day, we had a wonderful dinner in the hotel.

Here is a brief synopsis of what happened today:

We arrived in Milan early Thursday morning (Milan time), met our tour guide and immediately boarded our coach for a tour of Milan which started at the Sporza Castle under partly cloudy skies with a temperature in the 70s—a beautiful day. We had lunch in local establishments near the castle and boarded the coach for the Santa Maria delle Grazie.

The Santa Maria delle Grazie is the church where Leonardo Da Vinci painted the Last Supper. This work has undergone a major restoration and has survived hundreds of years as well as World War II where much of the church itself was destroyed.

We visited the Duomo, the fourth largest gothic cathedral in the world. This cathedral took over 600 years to complete and is just filled with detailed carvings in marble inside and out.

We had a motor coach tour of the City of Milan and then drove through incredible mountains passing abandoned Castles and ancient roads and walls built by the Romans predating the birth of Christ.

We arrived at our Hotel in Aosta and had a wonderful dinner--then off to bed for some much needed sleep.