From piazzas to canals, here's the insider's guide to exploring Milan and Venice

A twin-city escape from Milan to Venice offers a heady mix of vintage glamour, handmade beauty and culinary joy

From my window, I can see a quiet canal where gondolas drift past like slow punctuation marks.

“Welcome to the graveyard of the rich,” says Sarah, my vintage shopping guide, with a theatrical sweep of her arm. We’re standing in Cavalli e Nastri, Milan’s temple of pre-loved couture, surrounded by rails of Balenciaga, Dior, and Chanel that whisper of better-funded wardrobes. 

I’m transfixed by a pair of cherry-red Gucci ballerina flats with a bow. They’re €200 and they must be mine. Alas, they’re a size four, so unless they also sell time machines to get me back to when I was age eight, I’ll have to leave them behind.