Milan

This is our last day in Italy. We didn’t have the early start that has characterised our previous hotel departures – instead, we left at a more sedate 9:30am. This allowed us to make the short journey to Modena, and Luciano Pavarotti’s house.

Pavarotti was born in Modena and maintained strong connections with the area. When he retired he built a house on the outskirts, where he lived the remainder of his days. Whilst doing so he set up an academy for young singers, and taught or coached promising young opera singers. We toured the house, which is full of memorabilia, costumes, Grammys, platinum records, scores and books. Once we’d completed the tour we were treated to a concert from two up-and-coming singers: Yolanda, a soprano, and Giuseppe, a tenor, who gave us renditions of arias from various operas, accompanied by a pianist. Afterwards they stayed for interrogation by members of our group.

After the concert, we crossed the road to the restaurant attached to the house, for our very last traditional Italian lunch: antipasto, this time with hot bread pillow cakes, followed by risotto with balsamic vinegar (we are in Modena, after all) and roast chicken breast. Pudding was a vanilla ice-cream with caramelised peanuts.

We boarded the bus for the trip to Milan. We had about an hour to ourselves in Milan, to look around. This was hampered by (a) it being Mayday, so most of the shops were shut; (b) a demonstration outside La Scala opera house, requiring a police presence and road closures; and (c) it was raining. We wandered around a bit, then met up again at the agreed rendezvous outside Tiffany’s. As ever, one of our group was completely lost, but we managed to find her on the way back.

The big thing in Milan

The big shopping place in Milan

Our final journey was to the airport, about an hour out of town. We checked in, nd headed up to the lounge. Six hours to Dubai, then 16 hours to Auckland. Home on Friday.