Although Milan is considered to be the center of fashion, business and finance, my interest was directed more towards the cultural monuments. Our first stop was at the Piazza Scala, where the statue of Leonardo da Vinci was looking at the unimpressive facade of one of the world’s most prestigious opera houses – Teatro alla Scala. However, it was the music that was created and performed inside the building that has proven impressive, and even today every performance is sold out. The aristocrats of Milan supported their theater financially in exchange for private loges. What happened to this noble tradition?

Tickets to see the most famous fresco in the world – Il Cenacolo (The Last Supper) by Leonardo da Vinci – are sold out months in advance. It is located in Santa Maria delle Grazie, the beautiful 15th century Renaissance convent. The building and the fresco were subjects of multiple assaults. In 1652, a doorway was cut in the same wall, and workers had to cut out the feet of Christ in order to make the entrance. The building suffered its worst destruction during the World War II bombing, when everything collapsed except the wall with the famous fresco. Was it just a coincidence or a sign for non-believers?

Because the fresco is deteriorating, it is carefully protected. We had to pass at least three hermetically sealed chambers before entering the actual viewing room. Nobody is allowed to stay in the room longer than 15 minutes. Nevertheless, our guide asked us to inhale slowly in order to limit amount of exhaled carbon dioxide, which is damaging to the fresco. She didn’t have to ask. All of us were left breathless after just one look at the grandiose fresco depicting Christ telling his disciples that one of them will betray Him. The mastery of Leonardo da Vinci cannot be matched!

Our next stop was at Milan’s giant Duomo with its extraordinary roof containing 135 spires and innumerable statues and gargoyles. Among the many tombs and statues inside the church, is a depiction of San Bartolomeo carrying his own skin. Right next to Duomo is Milan’s enormous Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II with famous shops and restaurants. Our beautiful and intelligent Italian tour guide wanted to finish our excursion with an old tradition: “Touch the genitals of the bull and you’ll have a lucky return to Milan!”

I knew that touching certain genitals makes you want to come back to them, but I never thought that Italians prefer cattle.
“Isn’t it dangerous?” I asked.
“Oh, no! You simply have to step on them and make three circles around,” answered our tour guide.
“No kidding! That must be a bull with some great genitals…” away from the Duomo, I started to have some impure thoughts.
“The bull is engraved on the floor of our galleria,” my excitement was interrupted by our tour guide. It wasn’t until now that we noticed a group of visiting tourists making circles around one of the engraved marble plates at the center of the Galleria. Also at the center were famous stores like Prada, Louis Vuitton, Ferrari, and… McDonalds. Tempora mutantur nos et mutamur in illis (The times change, and we change with them).

And what is more — Musa Ler (the Mountain of Moses) towers above all this grandeur. It turns out that there is a village in today’s Cilicia named Vakif where all the residents are Armenian: the very same and authentic Cilicians from long ago. And they speak Cili…, well, Armenian.

It all started in the little town of Hurghada. A favorite spot of tourists from former Soviet countries – Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Poland – it is a resort recently built on the shore of the Red Sea (by the way, the second saltiest after the Dead Sea). It is a town with more tourists than native Egyptians and more starred hotels (of various levels) than residential houses or apartments. Hotels, souvenir shops, restaurants and cafes – all the necessities for a tourist – can be found on Sheraton Road.

Real places and real things rarely live up to our imaginations. Marseille, however, does just that – it is a dazzling city by the sea, festive, cheerful, ethnically and culturally diverse and more than a little bit adventurous, depending on what the visitor has in mind.