Michelangelo’s Rondanini Pieta
Caravaggio’s Still Life (in Pinacoteca Ambrosiana)
Raphael, The School of Athens
Milan 2026
We finally left Wellington on the afternoon of Sunday 19 April. We had paid a deposit on our cruise (1 – 11 May 2026) before 1 November 2025, in order to achieve certain savings; and had paid in full and bought plane tickets and insurance before 1 January 2026.
There were various reasons for the cruise, which I continued to have very mixed feelings about. One of my cousins and her husband recommended Oceania, as a cruise with smaller ships and better food; and one of JD’s sisters was having a birthday party at Easter in Australia. So we planned a trip overseas around those factors.
The world of cruising is vast, but narrowing it down to Oceania and Eastern Europe and archaeological sites helped. In the event the party in Australia did not go ahead, and we didn’t go to Australia, instead sticking to Star Alliance flights around the world, which does not include Australia. Thankfully we’d decided to book (and had paid) with the Star Alliance, not using Emirates or going through Dubai again. And this was before the Iran War started.
The cruise offered a generous allowance towards its daily excursions, or a drinks package. We chose the excursions, and they included many wonderful places with ancient ruins that I wanted to visit, including Italy, Sicily, Tunis, Turkey and Greece. If you choose the excursion package, they want you to choose day trips right away. Of course you pay a bit more for the excursions you want to go on, so that’s one way the cruise line gets more money before you’ve paid for the cruise itself. This seemed a great way to visit many wonderful places while not having to arrange travel (and accommodation) to those actual places.
Our excursion consultant advised me to use Get Your Guide or Viator for some trips, but I was reluctant to do this, not really knowing how far the ship would dock from railway stations; also the Get Your Guide excursions were pretty expensive too. If we used the cruise ship ones, they would lay on tenders, buses and get us back to the cruise ship in time. I’d probably be more adventurous in the future, should the opportunity arise.
We also wanted to stay in hotels we’d enjoyed on our previous trip in November 2024, and I was amazed at how difficult and expensive it was to book these – before Christmas 2025! There were hardly any rooms available, and these cost far more than I was expecting. Where I could I reserved without paying, hoping the accommodation would not be sold to someone else. But I couldn’t always do this, and I booked a hotel in Rome and was charged straight away. I could cancel these bookings, but in November and December 2025 it seemed very early to be making arrangements.
My initial joy at planning another trip turned to anxiety and fear about the costs involved. Would we be fit enough for the excursions I’d booked? Was the whole thing too ambitious? As it turned out, you spend a lot of time travelling, and that factor, and that many sites are closed on Mondays, affected my plan. Although I’d worked with my calendar in hand, I was anxious about all these bookings. Everything had to be really precise, and Copilot, which always rushed to tell me that I could get a train or a bus from this or that airport, was sometimes misleading. I had made a whole series of bookings until I couldn’t book the last train trip I wanted, despite what Copilot had told me. Also, if you’re toting baggage (less than most people but rather more than we were comfortable lugging on and off crowded trains and along footpaths), it’s often easier to get a taxi (if you can!)
I was also alarmed at how many visits you had to book ahead, meaning there’s little spontaneity about one’s travel; on the other hand, it can be quite reassuring to have one’s day mapped out for one; when we didn’t book sights or excursions ahead of time, we were able to make “last minute” bookings, and at some sites we did not have to queue at all! I did have a plan for each place we visited.
We had arranged to meet our son who lives in England with his family in Florence from 23-28 April. That would give us two days’ recovery in Milan, and then two days in Rome before boarding our cruise ship in Civitavecchia on 1 May.
So we flew to Auckland on the afternoon of Sunday 19 April and stayed that night at the Pullman Hotel (we’d previously stayed at the Novotel, the other airport hotel). The path from domestic to international airports in Auckland is always different, and, I think, further than it used to be. We tend to favour walking, if it’s not raining, as if you get the free bus you still have to load and unload your luggage onto it.
The Pullman was different, although we had a bigger room; we couldn’t take the luggage trolley into the room. We did have a meal there, and it had a very limited menu. I think we shared an antipasto board and had dessert. We had a stop of about five hours in Hongkong, so I had an overnight bag containing all I would need, including a change of summer clothes, for a shower and change in Hongkong.
We flew to Hongkong Premium Economy on Monday. It’s nice to roll across from your hotel to the International Airport, although the Pullman Hotel’s location and various International Airport “improvements” mean that it’s a longer walk than it used to be. We nervously checked our baggage through to Milan! At least we can shop for clothes in Milan, if our luggage doesn’t turn up!
At Auckland Airport I deemed that we were entitled to go to the Lounge, and although it was very busy, we were, and we had breakfast there. And what a good flight to Hongkong! They took really good care of us, coming around to see if we were all right. They served lunch and dinner, both really nice; and came around with afternoon tea during the flight! How can you get hungry when you’re sitting there doing nothing? Well amazingly you can, especially if the food is attractive.
Hongkong was a different story. We bought access to a lounge, but had to go through security again. When we reached the lounge, we had to wait to use the shower, and the armchairs allowed you to charge your phone but not put your feet up. We were due to fly Premium Economy with Cathay Pacific, but this was a really different experience. We were seated at the back of the PE section, and so couldn’t recline our seats. That didn’t stop the passengers in front from reclining theirs, of course. The plane finally took off at around 1:30 am (we’d been up for almost 24 hours by then), and then they served dinner! We declined, since we’d been served dinner on our flight from Auckland, but it was a very long time until breakfast on this 13-14 hour flight. Nobody came near us to offer water, or anything. Fortunately there was an omelette for breakfast, and a very flaky overcooked croissant.
The wheelchair lady at Milan’s Malpensa airport was fantastic. After a bathroom break, she whisked us through passport control (no biometric checks!) and on to baggage carousel 6. The luggage from several flights, including our own was being unloaded. A suitcase like mine was going around and around, and we hoped the owner hadn’t taken mine by mistake.
After an anxious few moments my suitcase and JD’s back pack turned up. Then the wheelchair lady took us to the station where the trains go from, and JD bought 2 tickets. And then we were on our way to Milano Centrale station.
When we got there we went to our hotel nearby. There was an altercation over payment; we insisted that they’d been paid, but in spite of that we couldn’t check into our room till 2 pm. But although we couldn’t shower, they would hold our bags. It was Design Week in Milan, which was part of the reason for the ultra-high prices. However I did feel that not having stayed over in Hong Kong or Singapore, we were prepared to pay a bit extra to stay in a comfortable, convenient hotel.
We went back to the station, feeling very tired and frustrated; after some small purchases there, and use of a costly toilet (over €1, you had to have the exact change) we shared pizza for lunch at a nearby restaurant.
When it was 2 pm we checked in. Then a new challenge – making the electrics work! You had to put your card in a horizontal slot, not at all intuitive. Then JD found the shower extremely slippery. He got the staff to bring more bathmats. But it was a lovely shower, oblong shaped with an overhead nozzle and a handheld one. You could have them both on at the same time. Sadly the towel rail wasn’t heated, but there were windows that opened. That night we didn’t go out for dinner but waited for the breakfast buffet which opened at 7 am. I wasn’t sure if our exorbitant room rate included breakfast, but it seemed that it did. Breakfast was very good, with the lovely golden queen-like peach halves and stewed prunes that had so charmed me 18 months ago when we were last there. There were very nice bedroom scuffs, robes, shower caps, a small tube of body lotion and a very nice tote bag.
That day we set out to do some sightseeing. We were reluctant to use the famed public transport system.
Instead we queued up at Milano Centrale for a taxi. Thankfully the queue moved quickly. We asked our driver to take us to the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, but instead he took us to Pinacoteca di Brera, where many of the design exhibits were being held. The Pinacoteca di Brera was on my list: I had good memories of it, but although housed in a big courtyard, the gallery seemed completely different from what I had remembered.
But there were, among the painting, exhibits of clothing by Armani. These proved to be extremely fascinating. How can you make the colour grey so exciting? We saw the famous painting by Andrea Mantagna of the dead Christ, but I don’t think there were any others that I recognized. So that was a bit disappointing.
Andrea Mantegna’s The Dead Christ
JD decided we could walk to Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, and we decided to eat lunch along the way. There were crowds and crowds of people, many of them looking extremely elegant, in the way Italian people do. I realized that despite wearing good-ish clothes, in no way was I competing with any of them!
We shared a pizza and a bottle of sparkling water at a rather down market cafe, a Bistrot. It was one of those where there’s an array of food, and some people choose some and have it heated. The pizza we shared was very good, although it was a bit big for us. When we went to go, there were several people waiting to pay, and frustrated that the waitress was extremely busy.
As we walked, the crowds eventually lessened, and we got to Ambrosiana, the oldest art gallery in Milan! It was in an old brick building, and we didn’t have to queue for entry; we were almost the only people there! What a treat. We saw Caravaggio’s famous still life with the bowl of fruit and the worm hole in the apple; we saw a Botticelli painting and a Holy Family painting with a very cute baby Jesus looking admiringly at his pretty, young mother.
There was an interesting exhibition of Raphael ‘s famous School of Athens painting (we have a huge jigsaw of that!) and Titian’s Ecce Homo. Then we made our way to the da Vinci room, and saw that too, although it wasn’t as exciting. We had seen his Cena Colo before, and we’re not minded to see it again.
Then we went to the very nice gift shop and bought a book for our youngest granddaughter. Truly tired, we got a taxi back to the station, and had a rest before dinner.
I had a glass of very nice prosecco with dinner, but unfortunately I did not sleep well that night. I always have trouble adjusting to the time-change, but this is somewhat outweighed by excitement of having survived the journey, and seeing exciting new things. In the morning we had our delicious breakfast again, and checked out, again having another argument over the fee, which had been charged twice. Unlike many Italians our hosts were not very helpful, but the second payment was later reversed. We paid the local tax (€10 per person per night, but the water bottle was free), having taken their rather nice tote bag and a pair of scuffs. We stored our baggage and asked the hotel to call us a taxi.
Our train to Florence wasn’t till 2:40 later that afternoon, so we set out for the Castello Sforzando, to see Michelangelo’s famous Rondanini Pieta. We watched masses of cruise buses, and crowds of unhappy looking people, but the statue was all I really wanted to see.
The statue was wonderful. It’s now standing in a large room on its own, so you can walk all the way around it. There was a group there when we arrived, but after they left we were virtually the only ones there. It was very special to see it again, and on our own. I was deeply moved, again. And what about that arm? It’s very emotional for me, as his unfinished sculptures are.
Then we set out to walk to the famous Duomo. There were crowds of people, but we bought tickets without queuing and joined the fast-moving queue to get inside. It’s a massive cathedral! Eventually we found the statue of St Jerome that we both remembered.
After a while we left and walked through the Victor Emanuel gallery (with hundreds of other people). We had decided to walk back to Milano Centrale, and get lunch along the way.
It was a very long walk, and soon we’d left the eating places behind. We eventually had lunch at a hotel – very strange. The toilets opened right behind our table, and although there were three, you had to push a pedal with your foot to flush.
I had cod with asparagus and mashed potato; it was quite nice, and I was heartened by the fact that the two gentlemen at the next table had it too. JD had rice with cheese! It looked very bland, but the cheese was quite tasty and it was very filling. We decided to have coffee at the station.
We walked on, retrieved our bags, and after coffee waited anxiously for the platform for our train to be put up (ten minutes before it’s due to leave). The train was from Turin to Reggio Calabria, and it was very full. But we got to Florence without incident, although we hadn’t been able to charge our phones on the train, as expected – the power point wasn’t functioning. They both had very low batteries, and although our hotel was near the station, I had not printed out a map of how to get there. So we took a taxi, although it wasn’t far away. The driver was very nice about it.
The hotel is a three star; I’d felt very guilty after the high expenses of our hotels in Milan and Paris, and I hoped this one would be good enough. Well, there was no palaver over payment: JD paid exactly what Expedia had quoted us. And they’d upgraded us: we were on the top floor, with a balcony, and a bath! And we have a balcony – with a view of the Dome of the famous Duomo!
The hotel is quite basic but I at least am really quite comfortable. Sadly there are no tea-making facilities in our room, or a fridge, but that really doesn’t matter. It is quite noisy here, since they’ve installed light rail outside the hotel since we were last here. I sit on the balcony after breakfast and enjoy the view!
It is lovely to be in Florence again, but the crowds are alarming!
That’s it for now. I am really excited that we were able to see what I wanted to see in Milan, despite our fatigue. Slava Ukraini! Nga mihi nui.
Classic Barbarian 