Main attractions

While Milan (Milano) may not be the first city a tourist thinks of when planning a trip to Italy, it has more than its share of attractions, not to mention history. For all its workaholic reputation as the money and business center of Italy, it’s a city with an influential past and a rich cultural heritage.

Consider that St. Augustine was baptized in a basilica that stood at what is now Piazza del Duomo; artists Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, the composer Verdi, the great tenor Enrico Caruso, and designer Giorgio Armani all lived and worked here; Toscanini conducted regularly at La Scala; Napoleon was crowned (actually, he crowned himself) inside the Duomo; Mussolini founded the Fascist party here; and the entire fashion world looks to Milan’s catwalks twice a year for the season’s fashions.

All this history, not to mention the considerable wealth generated by its favored commercial position, has left Milan with an abundance of art, cultural, and architectural treasures for you to enjoy.

In this page we will just pin a few ideas and tips, including notes about the closest metro stops. More info on public transportation here. Milan is too big to be described in one page, so if you have time maybe check the official website of the Municipality for visitors here or you can join a Free Walking Tour to have a glimpse of the city and maybe get some inspirations to explore more.

• PINACOTECA DI BRERA (M2 Lanza, M3 Montenapoleone, open in maps here). The Renaissance Palazzo di Brera, built between 1651 and 1773, was originally a Jesuit college, but since 1776 has been the Accademia di Belle Arti (Academy of Fine Arts). Along with a library and observatory, it contains the Pinacoteca di Brera, one of Italy’s finest art museums. Much of the art was acquired as churches closed or were demolished, and the museum is especially strong in paintings by northern Italian masters. As you enter through the courtyard, you’ll see an 1809 monument to Napoleon I by the sculptor Canova. Notable among 15th-century pictures are works by Mantegna (Madonna in a Ring of Angels’ Heads and Lamentation). The Venetian masters are represented by Giovanni Bellini (Lamentation and two Madonnas), Paolo Veronese, Titian (Count Antonio Porcia and St. Jerome), and Tintoretto (Finding of St. Mark’s Body and Descent from the Cross), and portraits by Lorenzo Lotto and Giovanni Battista Moroni. The Lombard masters, disciples of Leonardo da Vinci, are well represented, as are artists of the Ferrarese school. Correggio of Parma is represented by a Nativity and an Adoration of the Kings. Artists of the Umbrian school include Piero della Francesca (Madonna with Saints and Duke Federico da Montefeltro) and Bramante (eight frescoes Christ of the Column). The most famous picture in the gallery is Raphael’s Marriage of the Virgin (Lo Sposalizio), the finest work of his first period. Outstanding among foreign masters are Rembrandt (portraits of women, including The Artist’s Sister), Van Dyck (Princess Amalia of Solms), Rubens (Last Supper), and El Greco (St. Francis). It’s not all old masters – you’ll also find works here by Picasso, Braque, and Modigliani, too. Most visitors miss the Brera’s little secret: the Orto Botanico di Brera, a charming garden in one of its inner courtyards, a hidden oasis of exotic trees, pools, and flower beds with a 19th-century greenhouse. More info here.

• TEATRO ALLA SCALA (M1\M3 Duomo, open in maps here). Considered the most prestigious opera house in the world, La Scala has rung with the music of all the great operatic composers and singers, and its audiences – the theater seats 2,800 people – are known (and feared) as the most demanding in Italy. The season begins in early December and runs through May, but tickets are often difficult to come by. In the same building is the Museo Teatrale alla Scala, where you’ll find a collection of costumes from landmark performances and historical and personal mementos of the greats who performed and whose works were performed at La Scala, including Verdi, Rossini, and the great conductor Arturo Toscanini. If there is not a rehearsal in progress, the museum offers access to see the inside of the opera house itself, one of the world’s grandest. More info and box office (good luck!) here.

• SANT’AMBROGIO BASILICA (M2 Sant’Ambrogio, open in maps here). The church of Sant’Ambrogio was founded in 386 by St. Ambrose, who was born in Milan and is the city’s patron saint. The present church is a masterpiece of Romanesque architecture, built in the 12th century around the choir from an earlier ninth-century church. There’s a lot to see here, beginning with the large portico, also from the ninth century, and the atrium, whose carved stone capitals and portal rank it high among Europe’s best examples of the Romanesque period. Inside, be sure to see the pulpit with late Romanesque carving, and the richly carved 4th-century Stilicone sarcophagus underneath it. The casing (paliotto) of the high altar is a masterpiece of Carolingian art made in 835 at either Milan or Rheims. It’s easy to miss the mosaic dome of the original 4th-century Sacello di San Vittore, accessed through the last chapel on the right. More info here.

• CIMITERO MONUMENTALE (M5 Monumentale, open in maps here) With all of Italy’s magnificent architecture and art from Ancient Greek and Roman, medieval, and Renaissance eras, it’s easy to forget that Italy also has some outstanding examples from the Art Nouveau period, known here as Stile Liberty. Cimitero Monumentale, near Stazione Porta Garibaldi rail station, is an outdoor gallery of Art Nouveau sculptures, many by noted Italian sculptors. Behind a monumental and flamboyant striped marble portico, these monuments mark the tombs of Milan’s rich and famous from the late 1800s through the mid-20th century. More info here and “itineraries” inside the cemetery here.

• SAN MAURIZIO CHURCH AND ARCHEOLOGY MUSEUM (M1 Cordusio or M1 Cairoli, open in maps here). To many, the interior of the church of San Maurizio is the most beautiful in Milan. Built in the early 1500s as the church for a convent of Benedictine nuns, the entire interior is covered in frescoes of biblical scenes. Not only are these by some of the best Lombard artists of the 16th century – principally Bernardino Luini and his sons – but the colors of the paintings are as vivid as if they’d been painted yesterday. The long nave is divided into two sections, the rear one reserved as the nuns’ choir. The extensive monastery was built over the ruins of the Roman circus and portions of the Roman walls, all now part of the Civico Museo Archeologico (Archaeology Museum), where you can see these excavated remains of Roman Milan. Along with the ancient history of Milan, you’ll find Greek, Etruscan, and Roman finds from elsewhere in Italy, including sculptures in stone and bronze. Particularly good are the third-century sculpture of Maximilian, a bronze head, and a female statue with folded drapes.

• SANTA MARIA PRESSO SAN SATIRO (M1 Cordusio, M1\M3 Duomo, M3 Missori, open in maps here) From the outside, this church on a shopping street not far from Piazza del Duomo seems relatively small and unimpressive. Step inside to see that it is quite grand, its majestic, deep, vaulted sanctuary stretching into an apse that’s nearly the length of the main part of the church. Or is it? Keep your eyes on it as you walk forward, and watch as it melts into an almost completely flat wall behind the altar. It’s all an optical illusion, a very clever trick played by the architect Bramante to give grandeur to a church with only a limited space.

• LEONARDO DA VINCI MUSEUM OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (M2 San’Ambrogio, M2 San’Agostino, open in maps here). Housed in a former Olivetan monastery, the museum illustrates the history of science and technology from the work of early scientists into modern times. Of particular interest is the Leonardo da Vinci Gallery with working models of many of his inventions and machinery, created from da Vinci’s drawings. In the physics exhibits are apparatus used by Galileo, Newton, and Volta, and there are sections relating to optics, acoustics, telegraphy, transport, shipping, railroads, flying, metallurgy, motor vehicles, timekeeping, and timber. In all, more than 15,000 technical and scientific objects represent the history of Italian science, technology, and industry. You can step inside a U Boat “parked” in the courtyard too! More info here.

• PINK FLAMINGOS IN VILLA INVERNIZZI ( M1 Palestro, open in maps here). Villa Invernizzi is located between corso Venezia and via Cappuccini. Here, Cavalier Invernizzi – the father of Mio cheese – once lived, and it has now been converted into a foundation. A dozen of these rare birds, all born in captivity from ancestors imported from Chile and Africa, live here. They live a long time. Some of them have reached 25 years of age. They are social animals that love to be together, but at the same time, they are shy and reserved… a bit like the personality of the average resident of Milan.

There are some other Museum and attractions inside some city parks, find some more info here.

Here are some other tours you may like to join: