Italian Honeymoon, part III: Milano and Sirmione

Morning two of our honeymoon found us ready ot leave Milan, and excited to get to our first real "destination" in Italy. We made reservations months earlier to see Da Vinci's Last Supper painting at Piazza Santa Maria delle Grazie.

From high school art history, I knew what to expect. So while I was excited to see my first famous art piece abroad, I wasn't anticipating how epic it would be.
We were blown away. The painted spans the length of an entire wall. It's been through wars, the elements, government changes...it's been restored beautifully. It's definitely a must-see in Italy!


You get a 20 minute tour which we found was really interesting and informative. (But you leave wishing you had more time to take in the painting!)





We then hopped on the train to Venice, where we planned to stay for 3 days.
But we made one little detour, and we were so glad we did!

Hopping off the train and the Descenzano stop, we arrived in the town of Brescia. After leaving our luggage with a local hotel (for 5 Euro a piece!) We strolled down to the ferry dock and hopped on the 20 minute ferry ride to Sirmione--an old medieval town famous for it's gorgeous castle ruins.





First stop--gelato! We couldn't get enough gelato in Italy. E had been raving about it for years since he visited Rome, and we had gelato at least once every single day of our 10 days there!



Much better. :-)
Now, onto the castle!





after walking around for a bit



and discovering this lovely view



we sucked it up and paid the admission fee to get in the castle.












Do you see me under that arch down below?





The water was so calm and blue..., and contrasted with the castle ruins. I just couldn't get enough! We both decided if we could go back we'd spend at least 3 days in Sirmione!

Before leaving, we stopped at a local shop for pizza which we ate on the lawn and waited for the ferry to return us to our train. (It's cheaper in most restaurants to eat elsewhere, there is usually a sitting fee or required gratuity.)

Prscuitto y fungo pizza. Delicioso!



then began our trek to Venice...