Saints & Sinners in Milan

From the sling to The Last Supper in under four hours

I almost collapsed at The Last Supper. Not because I tripped, and not because my knees buckled in stupefied awe, but because, mere hours before, my husband and I were at a gay bathhouse in Milan called Hot Dog.

First stop: Duomi di Milano. Photo: Nathan Kirouac-York

Our 24 hours in Milan sounds like a Cards Against Humanity scenario — the dizzying whiplash of staying up way too late, bar-hopping in Italy’s most LGBTQ+-friendly city and completely losing track of time in a murky sex maze where time stands still, before beelining to the Dominican convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie for a tour of one of the most famous Renaissance paintings of all time. My fainting episode, I can only assume, was part hangover and part deific smiting. But let’s rewind a bit first.