Basilica di Santa Maria delle Grazie

This guide to the Basilica di Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan turns on the night of August 15, 1943, when British bombers struck the block and tore the roof off the monks' refectory next door. You'll hear about the sandbags and scaffolding quietly packed around one particular wall beforehand, and about Leonardo da Vinci's unusual choice of technique when he painted it between roughly 1495 and 1498. It follows what that wall endured afterward, from stabled horses to a restoration that took decades.