Climbing the Leaning Tower of Pisa together was silly and touristy and we loved every second of it.

The idea behind this grand tour, north to south, is wonderful, but the Bologna to Pisa train got delayed by nearly two hours with almost no communication from anyone at the station, ate into our only afternoon there and we barely got to see the tower before closing. Everything else, especially Venice and the Last Supper, was genuinely special, so this is really one bad travel day pulling down an otherwise five-star trip.

Gorgeous, well-paced route overall, Naples' coastal boat trip was a lovely closer, though our Milan hotel felt a notch below the luxury tier promised elsewhere on this itinerary.

Our gondola ride along Venice's Grand Canal at golden hour was every bit as romantic as the brochures promise, gliding past centuries-old palazzi with my wife beside me, hard to beat.

Venice and the Last Supper were genuinely special, so it pains me to knock it, but two of the six train transfers ran badly late and cut into already short city stays. One rough travel day around Pisa dragged an otherwise lovely fortnight down.

Standing before The Last Supper in that hushed room, my wife's hand in mine, was the most intimate moment of the whole trip.