Things to do in Milan

Landmark · Centro storico

The marble cathedral that took nearly six centuries and the glass-roofed arcade beside it.

Local tip: The roof terraces are the point, not the interior — you walk among the spires and out onto the marble. Buy the timed ticket online and take the stairs rather than the lift; the queue is a third as long.

Nightlife · Porta Ticinese, south-west

Two surviving canals from the medieval system Leonardo worked on, now the densest drinking strip in the city.

Local tip: The Naviglio Grande towpath is where visitors go. Locals drift one canal over to the Naviglio Pavese or into the Vicolo dei Lavandai courtyards. The last Sunday of the month brings a long antiques market along the water.

Neighborhood · Centre-north

Cobbled streets, the Pinacoteca's Renaissance collection, and the art academy that gives the district its character.

Local tip: The Orto Botanico behind the academy is free, almost always empty and one of the quietest places in central Milan. The Pinacoteca is free on the first Sunday of the month, which is also the worst day to go.

Neighborhood · North of the centre

Milan's skyline — the Bosco Verticale towers and the elevated park at Biblioteca degli Alberi — against the low-rise old Isola quarter behind.

Local tip: Isola is where people actually eat and drink; the towers are the postcard. Walk north from Piazza Gae Aulenti and you are in a 1930s working district in two minutes.

Culture · Magenta

The refectory holding Leonardo's Last Supper, which survived a 1943 bomb that destroyed the wall opposite.

Local tip: Tickets are released in batches months ahead and sell out immediately; the fifteen-minute slots are strictly enforced. Check the official site the moment a new quarter opens rather than paying a reseller.

Culture · North-west, near Porta Volta

An open-air museum of funerary sculpture, where Milan's industrial families commissioned serious artists.

Local tip: Free, rarely busy, and genuinely extraordinary — Art Nouveau mausoleums, a Futurist tomb and the Toscanini family plot. Pick up the free map at the entrance; the tram 12 and 14 stop outside.