Five years after handing out the final rose on The Bachelor NZ, Sol3 Mio baritone Moses Mackay has found his person — and the story comes with a scenic European address book.

Mackay, 36, has spent the past three years in Italy, training under his maestro in Bologna and Milan. It was Milan's art scene that introduced him to Chiara Principe, managing director of the city's M77 Gallery — the venue chosen for Gucci's Spring/Summer 2024 runway show, which put the space at the centre of the global fashion map. The couple are quietly matched, he says: both low-key, both deeply embedded in creative worlds. Principe has already visited New Zealand and won over the family, and the pair try to make it back to Aotearoa once a year.

Their base is shifting slightly these days. Principe has just been named director of In The Pink, a fine art photography gallery spread across three floors of a pink palacete in Loulé, in Portugal's Algarve. The couple have been making the most of the region's limestone cliffs and hidden coves, with a firm favourite being the Algar de Benagil — the famous domed sea cave where a circular skylight lights up an internal sandy beach. It's one of the Algarve's most photographed natural sights, usually reached by kayak, paddleboard or boat tour from nearby Benagil.

Italy hasn't just delivered romance. Mackay's opera career has taken off with roles in L'elisir d'amore, Turandot and Lucia di Lammermoor, plus the Brahms Requiem in Prague and a spot on the Moana soundtrack working with Lin-Manuel Miranda and Alex Lacamoire. He also spent time on the island of Procida, off Naples, writing a magical realism novel called Cucina Bella, paired with an original orchestral soundtrack. The island inspired the fictional Aprosia at the heart of the book, which is now with literary agents. He's teasing it via an eight-episode Instagram series, and hopes to debut the full song cycle back home.

Back in New Zealand, he returned in 2024 for NZ Opera's Le comte Ory and popped up in March at the premiere of Tenor: My Name is Pati, the documentary tracking former bandmates Pene and Amitai Pati's path from Samoa to platinum-selling success.

Why should travellers care? Because Mackay's European life doubles as a tidy itinerary: Milan for contemporary art, Procida for a slow, colourful island escape most visitors skip in favour of Capri, and the Algarve for coastal drama — with Benagil's sea cave the standout. It's a reminder that the quieter alternatives, whether a Naples archipelago island or a gallery town in Loulé, often outshine the headline destinations.

Story via NZ Herald Travel.