Guide

Milan, Italy

A few days in Milan

Capital of fashion, design and the aperitivo

DuomoGalleriaSforzaLast SupperNavigliShopping

Milan, the capital of fashion, sits in the north of Italy. The city is easy to reach by plane, train or car — and beyond the pull of its shopping, it has real charm thanks to its remarkable buildings.

I've been twice, and in two very different ways. The first, a weekend in May 2017, with my mother, simply to see the city. The second, in May 2022, for a single day: we came down by train from Como, during our stay on the lake.

✓ May 2017 · then May 2022, a day trip from Como

01Getting there and around

By plane

Three airports: Malpensa, the main one, linked to the centre by the Malpensa Express in about forty minutes; Linate, the closest, now served by metro line 4; and Bergamo-Orio al Serio, the low-cost airport, an hour away by bus.

By train

Milano Centrale station is monumental, a piece of architecture in its own right. High-speed trains take under three hours from Rome, an hour from Turin, two hours from Venice.

Around the city

Four metro lines and a tram network, some of whose carriages date from the 1920s and still run. The historic centre is very walkable.

✎ As in most Italian cities, central Milan is a limited traffic zone — Area C. If you drive, leave the car in a park-and-ride on the edge of town by a metro station: the cameras are everywhere and the fine arrives by post months later.

02The Duomo and its rooftop

Milan's cathedral is the largest in Italy, and building it took nearly six centuries: begun in 1386, it was only officially finished in 1965. It carries 135 spires and more than three thousand statues.

Going up onto the roof is the thing not to miss: you walk literally among the spires and gargoyles, with the city below and, on a clear day, the Alps beyond.

Rooftop on foot, around 250 steps≈ €10

Rooftop by lift≈ €15

Full pass: cathedral, rooftop and museum≈ €26

✎ We went up on foot, and it's well worth it. The stairway is narrow but the climb is short, and you come out right among the spires.

✎ At the summit stands the Madonnina, a gilded statue placed in 1774 at 108.5 metres. Milanese tradition held that no building should rise above her: when the skyscrapers did, a small replica of the Madonnina was placed on top of each. Several now wear one, including the city's tallest tower.

✎ It's a place of worship: shoulders and knees covered, or you'll be turned away — rooftop included.

03The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II

Opened in 1877, it's the oldest shopping arcade still in use in Italy — a nave of glass and iron linking the Duomo square to La Scala, lined with the great fashion houses.

✎ Look for the mosaic of the bull of Turin on the floor: tradition says you put your heel on its nether regions and spin three times, for luck. Generations of tourists have worn a real hole in the mosaic, patched and worn through again ever since.

✎ Its architect, Giuseppe Mengoni, fell to his death from the scaffolding days before the opening, never seeing his work finished.

04The Sforza Castle and Sempione Park

Once the residence of the dukes of Milan, the Castello Sforzesco now houses several municipal museums. Its courtyards are open to walk through, free of charge.

The Rondanini Pietà

Michelangelo's last sculpture, left unfinished: he was still working on it days before his death. It's displayed alone, in a former Spanish hospital within the castle.

The Sala delle Asse

A room whose ceiling Leonardo da Vinci painted into a canopy of interwoven trees. Leonardo spent almost twenty years in the service of the Sforza.

Sempione Park

Right behind the castle, Milan's great park, closed at the far end by the Arch of Peace. The Torre Branca, a steel tower by Gio Ponti, gives a view from 108 metres.

05Leonardo's Last Supper

It's Milan's most famous work, and the hardest to see. Painted between 1494 and 1498 on the refectory wall of the convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, it has never moved since — and miraculously survived a 1943 bombing that destroyed the rest of the building.

Adult entry€15

EU citizens aged 18-25€2

Under 18free

Length of visit15 minutes

✎ The hardest ticket in Italy. There's no box office on site: booking is compulsory, and only a few dozen visitors enter every fifteen minutes, to protect the painting. The official ticket office releases dates a quarter at a time, on a day announced on the museum's website, and spring slots go within hours. Open Tuesday to Sunday, closed Mondays.

✎ I didn't see it, and I'll say so plainly: I wasn't especially interested at the time, and the schedule was tight. That's exactly the trap — the Last Supper can't be improvised. If you think you'll want to see it, decide before you leave home, not once you're there.

✎ If everything is sold out, agencies resell tickets bundled with a guided tour, at a much higher price. Entry is free on the first Sunday of the month — but you still have to book, and those slots go faster still.

06The Leonardo da Vinci museum

The Leonardo da Vinci National Museum of Science and Technology is the largest science museum in Italy. It gathers models built from Leonardo's notebooks, but also trains, aircraft and an entire submarine, the Enrico Toti, parked in the garden.

07The Quadrilatero d'Oro

The "golden rectangle" of shopping, bounded by Via Montenapoleone, Via della Spiga, Via Manzoni and Corso Venezia. It's one of the most expensive fashion districts in the world, and every great Italian house has a storefront here.

✎ For more affordable shopping, head to Corso Buenos Aires, one of the longest shopping streets in Europe, with the high-street chains. And for end-of-line pieces from the big labels, Milanese head to the spacci, the factory outlets on the outskirts.

08Aperitivo in the Navigli

Milan is where the aperitivo was born: you order a drink in the early evening, and the buffet that comes with it is included in the price. Enough to stand in for dinner, for the price of a cocktail.

The Navigli district is its heart: two canals lined with terraces, the Naviglio Grande and the Naviglio Pavese, survivors of a waterway network that once linked Milan to the lakes and the sea. Leonardo da Vinci himself worked on the lock system that let boats handle the changes in level.

✎ I didn't note down any particular address — we ate along the water, and in the end that's the best of it: you pick a terrace on the canal and watch the world go by.

✎ Aperitivo generally runs from 6 to 9pm. After that the buffet is cleared away and you pay full price for your drink, with nothing alongside it.

09The business district

North of the centre, Porta Nuova and Piazza Gae Aulenti form contemporary Milan — a district built from nothing in the 2010s, the opposite of the historic centre in every way.

The UniCredit Tower

Italy's tallest skyscraper, 231 metres including the spire. And at the top, a small Madonnina, as tradition demands.

The Bosco Verticale

Two residential towers planted with more than eight hundred trees on their balconies — a "vertical forest" that has won awards worldwide, and become the symbol of the new Milan.

CityLife

To the west

The other new district, with its three towers nicknamed the Straight One, the Twisted One and the Curved One, by Isozaki, Hadid and Libeskind.

10Chinatown

Around Via Paolo Sarpi lives the oldest Chinese community in Italy, settled here since the 1920s. The street is pedestrianised now, lined with restaurants, bubble tea shops and stores — a striking contrast a few minutes from the Sforza Castle.

+If you have more time

La Scala

One of the world's great opera houses, on the square at the end of the Galleria. The theatre museum is open by day, and usually gives access to the boxes.

The Brera district

The artists' quarter, all cobbled lanes, with the Brera Picture Gallery and its collection of Italian painting.

The Monumental Cemetery

An open-air sculpture museum, free to enter, where Milan's great families competed over their mausoleums.

+Good to know

How long to stay

Three days cover the essentials. It's also an excellent base for Lake Como, an hour away by train.

Watch out for the trade fairs

Milan lives to the rhythm of its big trade shows — the Salone del Mobile in April, fashion weeks in February and September. On those dates hotel prices double and everything is full. Check the calendar before booking.

When to go

Spring and autumn. Summer is heavy and humid on the Po plain, and winter is often grey and foggy.

My verdict · after two visits

★

The Duomo, on foot