Flight time
2h 00m
Best season
April–May & September–October
Budget
Mid-range to splurge
Best for
Fashion, design, art, food, aperitivo
Overview
Why Milan for a city break?
Milan is Italy's least typically Italian city — and that's precisely what makes it fascinating. Where Rome is ancient, Venice is impossible and Florence is Renaissance, Milan is modern, northern, efficient and ambitious. It is the fashion capital of the world, the design capital of the world, home to the Last Supper and one of the great Gothic cathedrals, and the city that invented the aperitivo culture that has since spread across the planet. The Brera gallery, the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, the Prada Foundation and the Hangar Bicocca make it one of the finest cities in Europe for contemporary art.
From London it's exactly two hours — one of the most frequency-served routes from the UK. Linate Airport is 8km from the centre; Malpensa is 50km out. The city is best in April to May and September to October: the fashion weeks and design weeks (Salone del Mobile in April is the world's greatest design event) bring energy but also hotel price spikes. July and August are quiet — Milanese leave en masse for the coast — but very hot. Winter brings the Christmas markets and La Scala season.
Where to stay & explore
Milan's best neighbourhoods
Brera
The art neighbourhood — the Pinacoteca di Brera, cobbled streets, excellent restaurants and a bohemian character that's survived the surrounding property prices. The best area to stay.
Navigli
The canal district in the south — Milan's navigli (canals) are the remnants of a medieval waterway system. The aperitivo bar scene here on weekend evenings is the finest version of Milan's most famous ritual.
Isola & Porta Nuova
The new Milan — the Bosco Verticale (vertical forest towers), the redesigned Piazza Gae Aulenti and the Fondazione Feltrinelli by Herzog & de Meuron. The future of the city being built in real time.
Things to do
What to see in Milan
1
The Last Supper (Cenacolo Vinciano)
Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper — painted directly onto the refectory wall of Santa Maria delle Grazie between 1495 and 1498 — is one of the most important paintings in Western art. Entry is strictly timed and capped at 30 people for 15 minutes: book online months in advance. The painting is fragile, the room is temperature-controlled, and the experience is brief but extraordinary. Do not try to see it without a booking.
2
Duomo di Milano & rooftop terraces
The third-largest church in the world — construction began in 1386 and wasn't completed until 1965 (Napoleon had something to do with the push to finish). The Gothic exterior, with its 135 spires and 3,400 statues, is unlike anything else in Italy. The rooftop terraces — accessible by lift or stairs — give a unique perspective on the spires and views to the Alps on clear days. Book timed entry online.
3
Pinacoteca di Brera
Milan's great art museum — Raphael's Betrothal of the Virgin, Mantegna's Dead Christ, Caravaggio's Supper at Emmaus, Piero della Francesca's Montefeltro Altarpiece. A collection assembled by Napoleon's requisitions from churches across northern Italy, housed in a beautiful 17th-century palace in the Brera neighbourhood. Book online; go on a weekday morning.
4
Fondazione Prada
Rem Koolhaas's transformation of a former distillery in the south of the city into one of Europe's finest contemporary art spaces — nine permanent buildings including the Torre, a gold-covered 60s palazzo, and the Haunted House (a permanent installation by Thomas Demand). The Bar Luce, designed by Wes Anderson to look like a 1950s Milanese café, is worth the visit alone. Book online.
Food & drink
Where to eat in Milan
Ratanà
Modern Milanese / Isola
The finest modern Milanese cooking in the city — chef Cesare Battisti's menu is rooted in Lombardy's culinary traditions (risotto alla Milanese, cotoletta, ossobuco) but executed with a lightness and precision that feels entirely contemporary. In a beautiful 1930s building in Isola. Book ahead.
Luini
Street food / panzerotti
A Milanese institution since 1888 — fried or baked panzerotti (half-moon pastries stuffed with mozzarella and tomato, or spinach and ricotta) sold from a hole-in-the-wall near the Duomo. The queue is always 20 people long and moves fast. Under €3 for something extraordinary. Lunch only.
Aperitivo at Nottingham Forest
Cocktail bar / Navigli
The bar that invented the Aperol Spritz (or at least perfected it) — Nottingham Forest on the Navigli canal has been serving aperitivo since 1986. The ritual: arrive at 6.30pm, order a spritz or a negroni, receive a spread of free food with it. One of the most pleasurable urban rituals in Europe.
Itinerary
3 days in Milan — a suggested itinerary
Day 1
Duomo, the Last Supper, aperitivo in the Navigli
Linate Airport is 20 minutes from the centre by tram (Line 73, €2); Malpensa is 50 minutes by the Malpensa Express train (€13). The Duomo opens at 9am — rooftop terraces first, then the interior (the stained glass windows are the longest in the world). The Last Supper is a 15-minute walk west in Santa Maria delle Grazie — your timed entry is booked. Give it your full 15 minutes; look at the expressions, the hands, the table. Lunch near the Castello Sforzesco: the castle itself houses several museums including Michelangelo's unfinished Pietà Rondanini (his final work, worked on until three days before his death). Brera neighbourhood in the afternoon — the Pinacoteca, the bookshops on Via Brera, the aperitivo at Bar Brera. Navigli in the evening for dinner.
Day 2
Brera gallery, Fondazione Prada, a Milanese evening
Pinacoteca di Brera at 9am — Mantegna's Dead Christ first (Room 6), then the Raphael, then the Caravaggio. Two hours is right. Walk through Brera to the Quadrilatero della Moda (fashion district) — Via Montenapoleone and Via della Spiga are the main shopping streets; even window-shopping is worth it for the architecture and the window displays. Lunch at Luini near the Duomo for the panzerotti. Fondazione Prada in the afternoon — take the tram south, allow two hours for the complex. Bar Luce before leaving. Back north for dinner in Isola: Ratanà if booked, or the neighbourhood restaurants around Via Pasteur.
Day 3
Isola & Porta Nuova, one last risotto, airport
Porta Nuova in the morning — the Bosco Verticale towers photographed from the Piazza Gae Aulenti below, the Biblioteca degli Alberi park, the Feltrinelli bookshop. Walk down to the Hangar Bicocca (30 minutes north, worth it if there's an interesting show — Anselm Kiefer's permanent installation The Seven Heavenly Palaces is always there). Back into the centre for a final lunch: risotto alla Milanese (saffron risotto, the defining Milanese dish) at Trattoria del Nuovo Macello in Via Cesare Lombroso — an old-school workers' trattoria that does the city's finest version. Airport from Centrale station: Malpensa Express takes 52 minutes; Linate by tram takes 25.
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