Day 3
So far, this has been my busiest day of the Congress. After a couple of morning sessions at the Convention Centre, I headed down to the Castello Sforzesco to look at the current exhibition "Six centuries of book binding" and take a tour of the Biblioteca Trivulziana. I chose this tour in hopes of seeing some of the illuminated manuscripts and incunabula the Trivulziana has. Luckily, the librarians had anticipated this and on display was Leonardo da Vinci's Codex Trivulzianus, ca. 1487-1490. The tour was a great way to learn about one of Milan's libraries and meet other Congress attendees.
Following this busy day, I was looking forward to the ‘Social Evening' organized for Congress attendees. After dinner at Savini, I set out to see some of the wonderful exhibits that had remained open specifically for us. Thanks to the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Luca Pacioli's De Divina Proportione, 1498, illustrated by Leonardo da Vinci, was on display in the center of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele. Throughout the evening, there were large crowds of both Congress attendees and non-attendees waiting to see the beautiful manuscript. Next, we headed over to the Palazzo Marino where two of the 1,119 pages of Leonardo da Vinci's Codex Atlanticus were on display, also thanks to the Biblioteca Ambrosiana. Those planning to visit Milan between September 2009 and 2015 should take advantage of the opportunity to see pages from the Codex Atlanticus, on display as a precursor to Expo 2015. We wrapped up the evening in the Palazzo Reale, enjoying the current exhibition ‘Monet, the Water-Lily Period.' While there, I completely lost track of time and missed the piano and violin concert held in the Duomo. However, Monet was certainly worth it!