The atmosphere of La Scala

Monday 12^th May

A slow start to the day today and we didn’t head off into the city until after 10am. The main objective for the day was to visit the opera house – La Scala. We really just wanted to get a look inside the opera house but that comes as part of the ticket to the museum. When we bought the ticket we were told that the opera house was actually closed to visitors because of some official thing happening but by the time we got upstairs, the balconies were open for viewing.

 

Looking to the stage area.
The curtain is down and the area in front of the curtain
to the white line is the orchestra pit.

Looking down from the balconies near the back of the theatre you get a really good look at the whole layout. The orchestra pit seems to be about ¼ of the floor space. There are 4 rows of private boxes and then 2 balconies where you find the cheaper seats. It is all very plush in red velvet. In the box below us there was a lady from the theatre giving a sort of private guided tour to a couple (he was Australian but the lady I think was Italian). Because the acoustics are so good in the theatre we were able to hear what she was telling them without having to strain too hard. We just stood and listened and absorbed the atmosphere.

The private boxes. Apparently in the past people who owned the boxes
were able to decorate them however they pleased and it was an opportunity
for them to display their wealth. Thank goodness that is in the past.

The royal box - unfortunately a bit fuzzy.

The museum retraced the history of La Scala and all of the famous people whose works have been done there and performers who have performed there. They also had a huge library of stories and musical scores.  There were some costumes on display but these were mostly from the mid 1900s.

This was a model of La Scala done in Lego.
 Pretty amazing - I think they said their were 30,000 pieces.

Just one of the costumes.

After the opera house we found a great place for lunch where we were able to get roast chicken and real vegetables. We are missing our vegies – lettuce and tomato just doesn’t do it for us. Again we filled the day with just wandering the streets and absorbing the atmosphere. 

The place where we had lunch. 

Street scene looking back through the shopping mall
 to the sculpture.

Another church we found and visited.

The outside was nothing special but it was beautiful and tasteful inside
with some beautiful colours in the marble on the floors.

This was just on display in one of the piazzas where they were doing a photo shoot with models.
 I'm not into the sultry Italian model. Not a smile in sight.

This was the view of the statue from where we were standing eating our gelati.

Street scenes near our hotel.