Day 186 - Pixar Exhibition and Triennale Design Museum in Milan

I spent my last full day in Milan walking around the city and checking out some of the newer and more contemporary museum exhibitions.

Giulio told me of a couple of canals in the city that were designed by Leonardo Di Vinci, which I set off to explore and see. Although the city is flat, he was able to create the canals so that the current would flow in to the city through one canal, and flow out through the other. 

Afterwards, we both went to the Triennale Design Museum, which showcased some of the products designed by Italians in the 20th and 21st century. Most of it looked like an Ikea showroom, but of course, Ikea is the company that mass produces some of the smarter designed furniture created by intelligent designers from Italy and all over the world. There was an entire floor with some interesting, good, and awful furniture and gadgets from across the decades, and it was easy to pinpoint some of the things both Giulio and I either owned in the past, or currently own now. It was a quick exhibit to view, but definitely not worth the price of admission.

Pixar has a touring exhibition of all the artwork from its movies, and opening day in Milan happened to be today, so I made sure I would catch it before I left tomorrow. Now this definitely was worth the price of admission since it was so relatable for everyone, I'm sure. These movies have so much power to effect all of us and dig into our emotions, all through the use of animation, which painstakingly takes so much time and man power to get so technically precise. And then there are the story-tellers that make it more than just a technically beautiful moving picture. There were lithographs, computer designed drawings, cast models, pencil drawings, colorscripts, and even a huge Toy Story zoetrope for us to view. I couldn't help but have a big smile on my face when I saw some of the artwork. It used to be that animation was for the sole entertainment of children, but these days it's for everyone. The museum wasn't that large, but it took us until closing time, in about 2 hours just to see everything and admire it all..


The last thing to do was head out for happy hour in my last night here, or what the Italians call "Aperitivo" which is basically a discounted drink, and an appetizer buffet with some pretty decent snacks to nibble on. We went to a couple of these aperitivo hours before calling it a night.

A great ending to my time in Milan. Tomorrow, I head to Bologna, a place where many people say to visit for the food...especially the Bolognese Sauce (ragu), or meat sauce.

Triennale Design Museum

PIXAR!