Milan

Milan is a city of contrasts. Dolce & Gabbana stands next door to a Renaissance seminary. From the centre of the Galeria arcade you can see a statue of Leonardo da Vinci turning his back on Prada on your left and Louis Vuitton on your right. He should be grateful to modern technology for rescuing his fading Last Supper.

Yesterday I took a morning stroll on the roof of the huge cathedral. The fourteenth-century architects kindly provided a picturesque walkway above the flying buttresses and gargoyles.

In the afternoon my passion for neoclassical sculpture was rewarded with a wonderful Canova exhibition at the Palazzo Reale.

I spent the evening watching La Traviata at La Scala. Like me, the Milanese prefer their opera traditional with authentic period costumes. Counting two thirty-five minute intervals and endless bows after every act, the performance clocked in at three and a half hours.