Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Any tip's for Milan?

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Any tip's for Milan?

Going to milan for 4 days next weekend. ANy suggestions on sites to see , shopping etc! thanks.

I posted this yesterday for another traveler. Brera Gallery (a must): http://www.brera.beniculturali.it/gallery/index.php I like to go on Sundays when there are less crowds. Check times in advance. Superb collection. Biblioteca Ambrosiana: Also a must see. Wonderful Old Master paintings and other fine art pieces. World famous. Museo Poldi-Pozzoli: private art collection from wealthy patron who willed his collection as a museum. Castello Sforzesco: great historical building/fortress and art collection. Tours in English. Santa Maria delle Grazie: for Leondardo's famous "Last Supper" be sure to book tickets in advance. Advance reservations required. Unfortunately, even after the recent restoration, the fresco has badly deteriorated; check out the church next door. Duomo and adjoining Galleria Vittorio Emmanuelle II right next door -- you can't miss this. Prada has a boutique in the center of the Galleria. Take a walk around the fashionable via Montenapoleone and adjoining streets for Italy's top names: Armani, Gucci etc. Have lunch at Peck around the corner from the Biblioteca Ambrosiana. Stroll around the Navigli district (where the old canals are) for animated evenings and great restaurants. Perhaps a trip to the Lake Region since you're staying in MIlan for a while. Check out: www.comune.milano.it (in Italian). www.museionline.com (click on English flag on the left of home page)

Another great area for shopping, a bit cheaper and less crowded with fashon firms, but more trendy, is Corso Garibaldi. Take subway line 2 (green) until Moscova. In Piazza Foppa (same subway stop) there is a baker (also open on sundays) with a bar offering good pizza and other treats. Also, check out the lovely Certosa di Garegnano, in via Garegnano. Take tram n. 15 neat the Duomo and ask the conductor to call you as you arrive at Via Garegnano. It is a baroque monastry with a highly decorated church. The church can be visited every day 10-12 and 15-16,30.

Alice: I'm going to print your response and keep it handy for my next trip to Milano. Thanks for sharing! Excellent directions. Ciao.

Here is a real good tip...see the cathedral and La Scala opera house and then get out of town as fast as you possibly can. This will take you one day or part of one day. Then get on the train and go to Lake Como and enjoy that. Milan is not so nice you know.

Milan is a great city - Eye Spy gave you some good tips of what to see and do. FYI, they're starting preservation/cleaning of the Duomo in Milan, so parts of it may be behind scaffolding when you see it. Go up to the rooftop, anyway, if you can. Seeing the statues up close is very cool, and the panorama of the city is fascinating. I, too, like the Castello Sforzesco - the grounds are wonderful for roaming, and you can see the Arco della Pace in the distance. (Not to mention Michelangelo's Rondanini Pieta in the museum itself...) If you have time, the Museum of Science and Technology is well worth a visit. It has one of Galileo's telescopes, and wooden models of some of Da Vinci's mechanical devices. Even though La Scala is (temporarily) closed, hopefully the opera house museum is still open. If you're an opera or classical music fan, there are some great things to see there. (Toscanini's baton, for one.)

I disagree. There may be more beautiful cities but you shouldn't discount the vast amount of artistic and cultural wealth Milan has. The Brera Gallery is fantastic. Skipping over these sites as you suggest would be foolish.

The point with Milano (which is, by the way, where I live most of the time) is that during Ww2 it was heavily bombed, being the heart (with Turin, Genoa and Pisa) of the Italian industry, in particular after September 8 and the birth of Repubblica Sociale Italiana. Besides, Milano wa also the big city closest to Salò, capital city of the Rsi, and therefore de facto capital city of Italy. After these bombing little was left of the old city, and what little was left was often badly damaged. A visit to the Università Statale building (close to the Duomo) can give you a sense of what I am saying: the oldest part of the bulding is mostly intact, but the newst parts (XVII and XIX century)of it had to be all but rebuilt. This obviously made milano les scenic than many other cities of italy, but if you just have the patience of moving off the beaten track the city still has many beauties that just need to be discovered, places such as the abovementioned University, Certosa di Garegnano, the Sant'Ambrogio church, piazzetta Belgioioso, the Monumentale Cemetery, the Guastalla garden...

Alice: another great response! I always have a vision in my mind of St. Carlo Borromeo walked barefooted around the old Milan doing charitable works and helping those dying of the plague in those days as a young Michelangelo Merisi (as you know "Caravaggio") was discovering his talents. Alas, we'll have to settle for Piazza Belgioiso and lunch at Boeucc!

It was Federico Borromeo who did charitable works during the plague, Is cousin Carlo (the Saint) was mor interested in salvaginf his art collection to care much about what happened to the population of Milano. In any case, I have posted a selection of restaurants in Milano sometimes in the past wich I can't seem ablt to locate right now. CHeck out for it, it MUST be somewhere ^_^

Not true. In his biography entitled M: The Man who became Caravaggio, Peter Robb explains about Carlo doing the charitable works such as walking around barefoot and helping those stricken with the plague especially in 1579. Federico Borromeo is linked to the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, not Carlo. Ironically, today November 4th is St. Carlo Borromeo's feast day.