The train from Paris to Milan was very comfortable and the seven hour journey passed easily. The scenery through the Alps was spectacular and we enjoyed sharing it ‘live’ with our friend Gail in rural Ontario, it really is a small and easily connected world.

About an hour before we arrived in Milan we received a text from Franny, an old friend from Cambridge, by sheer chance she and her partner John were also heading towards Milan on a train from Brindisi with a one night stop before catching the train to Paris the next morning. Thanks to the wonders of WhatsApp and Google Maps we arranged to meet for dinner and  spent a couple of hours catching up on each others news.

After a good night’s sleep and a lazy start it was a shame to discover that Mark had developed a heavy cold – certainly my fault, I’m just recovering from one. He felt quite rough so we scaled back our plans to the essentials: breakfast of coffee and croissant at a traditional cafe, a walk through the streets of Milan. A visit to view  Leonardo’s Last Supper, a swing through Piazza del Duomo and then the Metro back to the hotel.

The Last Supper was amazing. Mark in particular had wanted to see it for years, tickets are very restricted but we managed to snaffle a pair of returns a couple of weeks ago and had been looking forward to the experience ever since. There was a bit of drama when we arrived, there is a transport strike in Italy today and as a result the museum was closed this morning and some people had been unable to get to the there for their timed entry. Access is heavily restricted as part of efforts to conserve the fragile painting (40 people in the room at a time and a strict 15 minute time limit) so there was no capacity to accommodate late comers. The ticket office and entrance were overwhelmed with angry ticket holders and a couple of times staff threatened to call the police! We remained calm and polite (very British) and somehow managed to get through the hoards and get in on time.

The Last Supper is quite faded and is displayed in low light but it is breath taking, and the thought that Leonard Da Vinci painted it right there certainly gave us pause for thought

Mark was quite cross that people were taking photos although they are strictly forbidden, in the scrum over access staff had abandoned the requirement to store bags in lockers so it was an Instagram free-for-all.

After the excitement of The Last Supper we had enough energy left to visit the Piazza del Duomo which was very grand and then back to the hotel to recover. Every street in Milan seems to have a pizzeria so we availed ourselves of one nearby for a take away supper which brings our day in Milan to an end.

Tomorrow, Naples.

Distance from Penzance 1067 miles.