Eid al-adha has given us a weeks holiday so we are taking the opportunity to visit Milan and Venice. A business class upgrade courtesy of air miles meant that we got a half decent nights sleep and arrived in Milan at 7.30am ready for a full days sight seeing.

We are staying at the Hilton – courtesy of all the Hilton Honours Points that Sue earned by living in the Hilton last year. Are you seeing a pattern here? This could be a cheap holiday.

The hotel is only 3 minutes walk from Milano Centrale railways station and proved to be an excellent location for our tours over the next few days.

For the last week or so I have been getting lots of helpful advice from Liz Cook, a school friend of my sisters who has lived in Milan for the last twenty three years. After we had checked in to the hotel we met Liz at Milano Centrale and spent the next few hours sharing the last 35 years of our different lives. Lovely to catch up and we were very grateful for the local tourist advice.

The rest of the day was a fabulous walking tour of some of the top sights of Milan.

The lack of sleep finally caught up with us and unable to summon the energy to go out for dinner we took advantage of free drinks and nibbles at the Executive Club at the Hilton. The cheap holiday gets even cheaper.