After the Duomo Museum the next major attraction covered by our combo ticket is the Ambrosian Library. It is a bit of a walk but we enjoy the experience of seeing the old and new buildings as well as the artwork along the way.
We soon arrive at the right spot but it takes a bit to find the actual entrance to the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana. In fact the Pinacoteca Ambrosia is housed in the historical Biblioteca Ambrosiana (Ambrosiana Library). The library was founded in 1609 by Cardinal Federico Borromeo, whose agents scoured Western Europe and even Greece and Syria for books and manuscripts.
There are fewer people here (so we should have bought the combo ticket here) and soon we are in exploring the many rooms full of priceless artwork.
There are lots of interesting paintings that we have seen previously reproduced online including a famous portrait of Dante. Always felt it is a weird way to dress and initially we thought it is a woman who is represented in it :).
There are some nice Tiziano paintings including one that sat (as a copy of course) in my grandmothers house making it is a nice reminder of childhood.
The most famous, and housed in a room of its own, is The School of Athens by Raphael. It is huge, really huge, it is hard to convey the scale in a photo. There are many interesting details, like who is represented and why, that are explained in a video running in an antechamber and described in books in the main chamber.
We really like the landscape painting and the combo ones they can be quite beautiful even if the themes are religious.
The museum is housed mainly on two levels and we have a few problems finding all the different way to get from a level to the other so we can see the full museum.
Downstairs is a collection of more modern artifacts from the 18th or 19th century but still we enjoy the change of pace.
While exploring we even find an exit to a balcony on the second level which has some great views of the interior courtyard and of San Sepolcro church which is part of the library itself.
The bottom level also has a beautiful staircase hidden at one end with statues overlooking it that connects the two levels.
There is another section with some great paintings of wildlife and of snow scenes in Holland. They are quite special and this room was one of our preferred ones.
Another painting that is famous, at least to us, is the one of Cleopatra dying from a snakebite. It might not have been this exact one exactly but the style is quite similar.
The most famous and protected piece of art in the museum is a painting by Da Vinci, Portrait of a Musician. It is a good one and of course we are no artists but it doesn’t seem that special compared to other ones in the museum.
We also see the library part of the Ambrosiana, we can walk through a more curated section but the actual library with old books read by patrons can be seen only through a window.
We explore a bit more even finding a weird stone tablet with a couple pigeons drawn on it – it feels really out of sync with the rest of the museum. But we like it of course!
Similarly to the Duomo Museum there is a church included in the visit to the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana. In this case it is more like two churches, the usual above ground one, San Sepolcro, and the under ground one, the crypt of San Sepolcro. We start with the crypt which is the more interesting to us. The floor here dates back to the Roman period and it is quite spartan. It was the place where St. Charles Borromeo retreated to pray which is now immortalized by a statue of him praying near a sarcophagus.
There are some signs of the old chapel as it was restored extensively before it was reopened to the public. The ceiling especially is beautiful where it was restored.
There are also some restored XI century frescoes painted on the walls. It is surprising how much they were able to restore and quite interesting to see the old frescoes.
The church itself is also quite beautiful with some well built scenes of nativity we are careful to examine.
As usual the altars are quite noteworthy and the frescoes are beautiful but we really liked the crypt better with its haunted feeling.
We exit on the other side of the building which proudly states “Bibliotheca Ambrosiana” something we didn’t see at the entrance. And now it is time to find something for lunch but on the way we have one more place we want to see, the LOVE sculpture in front of the stock market. It is really not a sculpture of love more a raised finger to the capitalist system…in our reading. And it is not really LOVE but L.O.V.E., which stands for Libertà, Odio, Vendetta, Eternità (Freedom, Hate, Vengeance, Eternity).
Soon we identify a lunch place that speaks to us and we get in, just in time, as we find out when we leave it closed about five minutes after we entered.
The food is good enough, we buy pizza which we had to try and an affogato, an interesting mix of icecream and coffee. Full we are ready to explore the Duomo proper which is the last item on our combo ticket.
