Santa Maria delle Grazie
Church and convent in Milan, Italy, whose refectory holds Leonardo’s Last Supper.
At a glance
| Source | Author | Role | In one line |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neither Here Nor There | Bill Bryson | subject | A long walk across Milan to see a fresco so faded it is “like a ghost image”. |
Neither Here Nor There — Bill Bryson (1991)
Source: Readwise highlight
Afterward I walked a long way across the city to see Leonardo’s “Last Supper” in the refectory beside the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie.
- Role: subject
- In the book: Chapter 16. He pays “a load of money” and steps into a bare, dim hall. A railing keeps visitors about twenty-five feet away from a painting “so faded that it can barely be seen from five feet”. He says that without the thousand reproductions you probably wouldn’t recognise any of it.
- Why it matters: It is the chapter’s best comic set-piece about a masterpiece that barely survives, and fits the book’s running theme of famous sights that disappoint in person.