Day 19, Milan

We are nearing the end of this opera tour. We'll leave Milan tomorrow morning and head to Venice to see our very last opera, Massenet's "Thaïs". Today we hopped on a bus (ok, not that many people in our group are prone to "hopping") and drove out to Casa di Riposa, the retirement home for musicians that Verdi left as part of his legacy. It's also where he and his second wife are buried together in a beautiful mosaic'd crypt. Nowadays, because the social security has gotten so much better, elderly musicians are able to support themselves. So with the spare rooms at this place, they offer boarding for international students of opera-- and then they get tutored by the former singers who also live there. What a cool concept! We met one of the elderly residents there. This woman had come down to the lobby just before we left, and talked to Gramma in Italian. Gramma asked if she was a singer, and the old lady replied, "Si, ma non canto piu." ("Yes, but I don't sing anymore.") It was a simple, short conversation, but Gramma's been recalling it all day, wishing we had taken a picture of this woman. Gramma wishes we had gone in to meet some more of the people, and that would have been really nice. Alas, the tourguide ushered us back onto the bus and we went to see a few more sights around the town.
At the La Scala museum, among all the huge portraits of important singers and composers, they had a small display of old instruments, including an 18th century salterio, aka dulcimer! I started to ask some questions about it, and told the guide that I was really interested in somehow getting a photo of it. They flipped through the "La Scala" book that was on sale there, but it mainly showed the rooms, rather than the objects. So the security guard must've detected my sincere interest in this one particular instrument, and granted me special permission to take some photos of it.
We took it easy this afternoon... What with the weather being all dreary and rainy, Gramma and I enjoyed some downtime in the hotel until it was time for dinner. The whole group went out for dinner. We ate risotto Milanese and ossobucco-- Here's what I found on wikipedia about this: "Ossobuco alla milanese is a dish from Milan, capital of Lombardy, of braised veal shanks. It is usually sprinkled with gremolata, a mix of parsley, garlic and lemon peel, and served with risotto alla milanese, a saffron risotto." One of the guys on this tour, Joel, has a very nice GPS unit that has all kinds of translators in it. He was interested in the Italian word "stinco," meaning "shin," and he happened to find this interesting idiom: "Non e uno stinco di santo." Directly translated, that's "He's not one shin of a saint"-- or more loosely, "he's no saint." I will be so impressed with myself if/when I ever get to use this phrase in a conversation.