10 Milan

Maybe this is the most representative monument of this city. This church, dedicated to Santa Maria Nascente, it’s the fourth in Europe for dimensions, and is the symbol of Milan. The works to build this enormous church began in 1386, under order of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, and allowed the construction of a stupendous monument, with beautiful stained glass windows and engraved sculptures. This structure is one of the principal examples of the Gothic architecture, with some peculiarities: it is the only one in which Nordic and Lombard elements finds an original harmony. The beauty of this Cathedral is completed by the major steeple, where there’s the celebrated Virgin, a golden copper statue, 4 meters high. If you visit the church in a beautiful sunny day, you could enjoy a beautiful view of the city and of the Alps. In the interior you must not miss the presbytery, restored in the half of 1500. In the apse is conserved a relic of the Sacred nail of the Cross. Just to give you some numbers, there are: 3.500 statues, the structure is 157 meters long, 92 meters wide and the major steeple is 108, 50 meters high.

The charming history of Navigli begins in the second half of XII century, with the construction of the first navigable stretch. The first canal, Ticinello, was opened in 1179 and was 50 kilometres long. This canal gave the impulsion to build the Major Naviglio (Naviglio Grande). The realization of these canals demanded the work of important engineers of that time, and today is still possible to appreciate the genial sluice gate conceived by Leonardo da Vinci at the end of XV century. Ludovico il Moro asked da Vinci to project the system to consent the navigation from the Como Lake to Milan. During the years the Navigli were really neglected and in 1977 Italy asked the region Lombardia to take care of them. In 1980 an improvement project of the area began. Once the Navigli were very popular and they were a meeting point for street markets and little shops. Nowadays this is a very fashionable area, meeting point of models, artists, university students, who spend their nights going from on bar to an other. But the navigli atmosphere is really unique, maybe because near the fashionable clubs is still possible to find traditional workshops, or because the courtyards take live colours with the sunset light. Everywhere you look there’s something beautiful to see.

Milan’s city dwellers has a strange connection with this castle, they love and hate it, because of the rowdy events of which it has been protagonist. For centuries this castle has been the central point of terrible facts for the population of Milan, it was the emblem of the unbearable power of the Milan’s rulers and foreign conquerors. Finally in XX the Castle changed its role and took the one of comforting cultural place. The name of the Castle is a reference to the Italian mercenary and Duke of Milan, Francesco Sforza, that in 1450 wanted to remodel the structure. But the Castle origins are older: It was built in the second half of 1300 for Galeazzo II Visconti, Lord of Milan. Nowadays this castle hosts a lot of museums: at the floor there’s the Antique art museum, at the first and second floor there’s a picture gallery and a collection of ancient furnitures, in the tower, at the first and second floor you can find the Collection of applied arts and the Musical Instruments Museum, in the basement there are the Prehistoric Museum and the Egyptian Museum.

Information to visit the Castello Sfrorzesco and the Museums:
Castle entry is free
When: Monday – Sunday, in winter times from 7 am to 6 pm in summer time from 7 am - 7 pm

Museums:
When: From Tuesday to Sunday, 9 am – 5,30 pm Never: Monday, 25th December, 1st January and 1st May
Tickets: 3 €, reduced tickets € 1,50

How to get here: Metro line MM1, stop “Cadorna” or “Cairoli”, line MM2 stop “Cadorna” or “Lanza”. Bus: 43, 50, 57, 58, 61, 70, 94. Tram: 1, 3, 4, 12, 14, 20, 27.

The Brera’s Palace was built in an ancient convent of the XIV century, it belonged to the monastic order of the “Umiliati” and successively was given to the Jesuits, the latter founded here a school. At the beginning of 1600 the Palace took a sober and majestic appearance, thanks to the works made by Francesco Maria Ricchini. In 1773, after the disbanding of Jesuit order, the Collegium of Brera became property of the state and became the seat of one of the most important cultural institutes for will of the empress Maria Teresa d’Austria.
One of the greatest protagonists of Neoclasicism in Italy, Giuseppe Piermarini, worked on the library, the imposing main door that gives onto via Brera and of the courtyard, in the centre of this yard there’s a big statue of Napoleon dressed as Mars the peacemaker. During XIX century courtyards, loggias, corridors was predisposed to keep monuments dedicated to all the greatest men who were in some way linked with Brera’s history.
The Picture Gallery was made in 1776, at the beginning it had the purpose of keeping significant art works destined to the formation of young students but, when Milan became capital of the Italian Reign, it was declared a museum in where there were kept all the pictures coming from the territory took back from the French army.
This Gallery is different from other big and known Italian museums, because it wasn’t born from a private collection, but from a specific political will, it was born from a statal collection. Its patrimony is grown during the years and now here there are conserved works of the most important Italian and European painters of XX century as Modigliani, Morandi, Carrà and Braque.

When: Tuesday – Sunday from 8,30 am to 7,15 pm
Never: Monday, 1st January, 1st May and 25th December
Tickets: 10 €, reduced ticket 7,50 €
How to get here: Metro line 2, stop “Lanza”, Metro line 3, stop “Montenapoleone”. Tram: 1-4-8-12-14-27. Bus: 61, 97

This famous, controversial and ambiguous work of Leonardo Da Vinci, it’s kept in the dining hall of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. This important fresco has been recently rediscovered, also thanks to the famous book of Dan Brown, Leonardo made this painting, characterized by a surprising beauty on the North wall of the hall between 1494 and 1498, during the leadership of Ludovico il Moro. The brilliant Leonardo made his masterpiece with a particular technique: he applied the colours (tempera and oil) on the dry wall, instead of applying plaster before. Unfortunately, due to this technique, this enormous painting is going to disappear because of the dampness. The work has received a lot of restorations and the last one, which was in 1999, gave to the work its original colours and removed the paint of the older restorations. The painting is kept in particular ambience conditions and can be visited by groups of maximum 25 people and every 15 minutes.

Information to visit “The Last Supper”:

When: Tuesday – Sunday from 8,15 am to 7 pm
Never: 1st January, 1st May and 25th December
Tickets: 6,50 €, reduced tickets 3,25 €

The famous Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II is considered the living room of Milan. It was built in the first half of XIX century and its style looked at the urban evolutions of the great European capitals. In 1859 the idea of a covered passage which could connect Piazza Duomo with Piazza della Scala (there’s the well known theatre) became concrete. It was made a competitive examination to evaluate propositions of various architects. 176 architects made their project but among those the one who won was Giuseppe Mengoni, who planned a long arcade crossed by a sort of big corridor with a central octagonal hall. In 1865 the works began, the first stone was posed by the king Vittorio Emanuele II of Savoia and two years after the Galleria was opened to the public, even if it was still incomplete and the king wasn’t there. But the construction of this Galleria has a tragic epilogue: its architect, Mengoni, died during an inspection on the building site. Some people thought about a suicide, because Mengoni received a lot of critics on his work and because the king wasn’t present at the inauguration: but the king was very sick, indeed he died few days after. The Galleria is full of shops and bars, and in the Christmas period is possible to see the beautiful Christmas tree which is completely decorated with Swarosky crystals.

As for mostly of Italian cities, Milan too has its own cooking tradition. The real king of Milan’s tables is the butter, it is used in the greatest part of dishes: in the risotto, in the breaded veal cutlet and in the “panettone”. Among the first courses, the most famous is the “risotto alla milanese”, made with saffron. The traditional recipe says that it should be added beef marrow too, but currently it’s not very used. An other first course typical is the “busecca” (from this dish, the Milan city dwellers were called “busecconi”), which is a dish made of stewed tripe. The second courses are very rich: the breaded veal cutlet (in Italian: Cotoletta alla milanese) must be made with veal meat, with or without bone, and it should be fried in the butter, but nowadays the greatest part of people prefer the more healthy oil of olive. The “cassoeula” it’s a very rich dish, made with savoy cabbage and the “poor” parts of the pork. If you prefer sweet dishes, in Milano were born two of the most known Italian cakes: the panettone, which is traditionally made for Christmas, and the “colomba”, which is made for Easter. The cheese production gives other typical productsm for example: stracchino, mascarpone, grana of Lodi and the tasty gorgonzola.

Night life in Milan is very various and not limited at the week end: among fashion clubs and exclusive discotheques, the night life is really wild and often very transgressive. The area where the fun is concentrated are: Le colonne di San Lorenzo, Ticinese, Navigli and Garibaldi. In San Lorenzo young use to have a walk and drink something, or stay sit on the San Lorenzo church stairs. In Garibaldi there are the famous discos Casablanca and Hollywood, they are attended by models and stars. In the summertime the night life moves in direction of the idroscalo, where there are others famous discos, there’s just one problem: it’s full of mosquito. For whom wants to spend a calm evening and night, having an aperitif or a cocktail, there are the Navigli and Via Tortona (the latter recently appreciated, thanks to the Fairy of the design) really full of bars and clubs. We want to give you one suggestion: Milano has a lot of traffic so if you decide to go out take the tram, the metro or the bus, they work very well and this will prevent you to spend your night in the traffic or looking for a parking.

Milano and fashion are two words indissoluble, so for shopping addicted won’t be a problem find a place were to use their credit card. Just think that via Montenapoleone is the heart of the fashion quadrilatero and this street of Milan is considered one of the fifteen most luxurious of the world. In this sort of labyrinth of streets, among via del Gesù, via S. Andrea, via Spiga, via Borgospesso e obviously via Montenapoleone, you can find shops of the most famous Italian and international fashion designers: stupendous dresse, bags and shoes, jewellery and show rooms of furniture and design.
If you don’t want to spend astronomical amounts you can have a walk in Corso Vittorio Emanuele, where you can find shops less expensive but as much furnished.

Milan is no more the destination for manager and business men only, in the latest years it has became the point of arrival of a certain type of cultural tourism: the navigation of Navigli, the temporary exhibitions and the new museums, they attracted a great number of tourists. Its accommodation capacity has improved, and now you can find hotels, bed&breakfast, flats and hostels, in every area of the city, there’s also the possibility to rent beautiful liberty style flats. Near the luxurious hotel chains you’ll find also cheaper hotels, very homely. All the accommodation facilities are perfectly linked with the centre of the city, Milan has a public transport system very functional, so you can sleep in the periphery without problems.