The expert view

This month sees the coming of the start of the city break season. Time to add some variety to the long run in to Christmas with two or three days in Paris or Rome, or in my case a little while ago, in Milan, where I was reminded of two things. First, what a great city it is for a short break: not just for its shopping and food, but for its cultural sights. And, second, the problem of how museums and galleries engage their visitors.

Milan has more than its fair share of museums, and they are strangely underappreciated. The Pinacoteca di Brera – which houses the main art collection – is one of the great museums in Italy. It is chock-a-block with paintings of the very highest quality. Highlights include St Mark Preaching in Alexandria by Gentile Bellini, with its bizarre depiction of a giraffe on a lead in the background, and seminal works by Piero della Francesca and Caravaggio.

Yet the Brera gets only about 300,000 visitors a year. The Uffizi in Florence gets two million, and the National Gallery in London six million. It’s not clear why visitor numbers should be so low. There is certainly a lot of competition in Milan – Leonardo’s Last Supper; the art collection at the Fortezza (Milan’s castle); and the Ambrosiana Library, which houses Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks, are also world-class sights. But perhaps the bigger issue is that the Brera is tucked away on the periphery of things. And that it has always had a rather neglected air. The galleries were drab and the labelling almost non-existent.

Which brings me to the second point. How do you label paintings and artefacts in museums? It’s harder than it sounds, and it’s a source of great controversy among curators. What should a label say? Should it offer a narrative; historical context; ask questions of the reader? Should there be a label at all? After all, studies have shown that visitors spend more time reading labels than actually looking at the work they describe.

The problem is that most of us know very little about what we are looking at. Nevertheless, when we walk into museums we have a sense that we ought to be impressed – this is a cultural experience for which we have travelled hundreds of miles. So the thing we need is information. Anyone who has visited museums in Italy will know that that is a commodity in short supply.

Which is why it was refreshing to see the changes being brought in by the Brera’s new director, James Bradburne, a voluble British-Canadian. In his first year in office, he has injected energy into the museum, organising new exhibitions and, crucially, adding much more detailed and prominent labelling. Let’s hope other Italian museums learn from his work.

Nick Trend stayed at the Mandarin Oriental in Milan. For our review and booking details see telegraph.co.uk/ttmandarinmilan. The Brera (pinacotecabrera.org/en)

were told to get a taxi for which we would be fully reimbursed. We were also offered a hotel room if we preferred to wait and travel back the following morning.

We asked if we could take a taxi home to Burgess Hill, which is not far from Gatwick. The agent said this would not be a problem and we should send the receipt to customer services.

We eventually found a licensed taxi which charged us £400 for the 300-mile round-trip as it was a bank holiday. This didn’t seem unreasonable in the circumstances.

After problems trying to attach the receipt to the online claim form, easyJet’s customer services told me to email the receipt and they would link them up. Over the past three months I have contacted the airline’s customer services team numerous times, by phone and email, to no avail.

Please can you help? JOANNA WILLIAMS

AAfter her claim was initially rejected by an easyJet agent, Mrs Williams managed to get her case escalated. EasyJet finally came up with an offer of £200 towards the fare, which Mrs Williams rightly refused.

At Birmingham, easyJet gave passengers a choice: stay overnight and wait for a coach transfer or make your own travel arrangements to get home. In such cases, the airline is required to reimburse reasonable costs. If this happens, it’s important to make a note of the conversation (when, where, who) and – especially in the case of an expensive taxi fare – ask the agent to provide a signed note approving the expenditure.

EasyJet says that when aircraft are diverted it first tries to refuel and take off again for the original airport. If this isn’t possible it normally provides a coach transfer. However, on this particular night there were road closures in place in and around Birmingham airport and coaches were not able to get there, so customers were advised to make their own way home and told the airline would reimburse them for their expenditure.

Mrs Williams’s claim should have been escalated to a manager for approval. The claim will now be paid in full and easyJet has apologised for stonewalling Mrs Williams.

Generally speaking, the law says if your flight is diverted – for any reason – the airline must still get you to your destination airport.

If this involves staying overnight, the airline must provide customers with a hotel room and travel to and from it. They are also entitled to food and drink at the hotel, and should keep receipts as proof.

If an airline says it will pay for a taxi, do try to get it in writing – especially if taking one home instead of to the original airport. Airlines have been known to wriggle out of reimbursement using the ruse that the law says they are only required to get you to the destination airport.

Questions should be sent by email to asktheexperts@ telegraph.co.uk. Please provide your name and nearest town and, if your query is about a dispute with a travel company, your full address, daytime telephone number and any booking reference. We regret that we cannot answer postal or telephone queries.