Milan sightseeing

The best sights in Milan, from the magnificent Duomo to best art galleries, the museums of the Renaissance castle and opera at La Scala

image

Duomo di Milano (Milan Cathedral)

The Cathedral of Milan is one of the largest Gothic churches in the world, an intricate festival of soaring spires peppered with hundreds upon hundreds of statues, with a cool, forest-like interior and fabulous views over the city from the roof ... » more
 
image

Leonardo Da Vinci's Last Supper

The Renaissance Titan Leonardo Da Vinci decorated one wall of the convent dining hall at Milan's church of Santa Maria delle Grazie with Il Cenacolo, miraculously saved from destruction several times and, even in its faded and semi-ruinous state, still one of the greatest and most famous frescoes in the world ... » more
 
Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan

Pinacoteca di Brera

Milan's Brera is one of the top painting galleries in Northern Italy, with works by Raphael, Caravaggio, Tintoretto, Mantegna, Bellini, and Piero della Francesca... » more
 
Teatro della Scala, Milan

Teatro della Scala

Milan's premier opera house—usually just called "La Scala"—is where Toscanini twirled his baton, Giuseppe Verdi was once the in-house composer, and Maria Callas once trilled her way to fame and fortune... » more
 
Castello Sforzesco, Milan

Castello Sforzesco

This sprawling castle is home to several excellent museums, including one that contains Michelangelo's final sculpture, a strikingly modern-looking Pietà ... » more
 
Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Milan

Pinacoteca Ambrosiana

This small but worthy collection contains works by Da Vinci, Caravaggio, Titian, Botticelli, and Rubens, plus Raphael's preparatory "cartoon" sketch for the famed School of Athens fresco in the Vatican... » more
 
Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan

Museo Poldi Pezzoli

The pleasant effect of seeing the Bellinis, Botticellis, and Tiepolos amid these salons is reminiscent of a visit to other private collections, such as the Frick Collection in New York City and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston... » more
 
Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, Milan

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II

This genteel, 19th century glass-ceilinged shopping center is still the social and shopping hub of Milan... ... » more
 
Shopping in Milan, Italy

Shopping in Milan

From über-high fashion to bargain hunting at stock shops, Milan is a shopper's paradise... » more
 
Chiesa di San Lorenzo Maggiore, Milan

Chiesa di San Lorenzo Maggiore

The oldest church in Milan attests to the days when the city was the capital of the Western Roman Empire. The 4th-century early Christian structure has been rebuilt and altered many times over the centuries (its dome, the highest in Milan, is a 16th-century embellishment) but it still retains the flavor of its roots in its octagonal floor plan and a few surviving remnants. ... » more
 
Museo Nazionale della Scienza e delle Tecnica, Milan

Museo Nazionale della Scienza e delle Tecnica

Amazing recreations of the master inventor The heart and soul of this engaging museum are the working scale models ★★ of Leonardo's submarines, airplanes, and other engineering feats that, for the most part, the master only ever invented on paper (each exhibit includes a reproduction of the master's drawings and a model of his creations)... » more
 
Basilica di Sant'Ambrogio, Milan

Basilica di Sant'Ambrogio

From the basilica that he constructed on this site in the 4th century a.d.—when he was bishop of Milan and the city, in turn, was briefly capital of the Western Roman Empire—Saint Ambrose had a profound effect on the development of the early church... » more
 
Civico Museo Archeologico, Milan

Civico Museo Archeologico

The most fascinating finds in this sizable repository of civilizations past are the everyday items from Milan's Roman era—tools, eating utensils, jewelry, and some exquisite and remarkably well-preserved glassware. ... » more
 
Museo Diocesano, Milan

Museo Diocesano

Set just inside the Parco delle Basiliche—a collections of grass-fringed paths, playgrounds, and volleyball courts created just after World War II on the site of Milan's ancient execution grounds... » more
 
Museo Bagatti Valsecchi, Milan

Museo Bagatti Valsecchi

This 19th century neo-Renaissance palazzo is filled with as much as the Bagatti Valsecchi brothers could acquire in the way of original 15th- through 17th-century pieces, tapestries, furnishings, and paintings from all across Italy, and what they couldn't get original they had an army of the best Lombard craftsmen imitate... » more
 
Santa Maria presso San Satiro, Milan

Santa Maria presso San Satiro

What makes this beautiful church, just south of Piazza del Duomo, so exquisite is what it doesn't have—space. Stymied by not being able to expand the T-shaped apse to classical Renaissance, cross-shaped proportions, the architect Bramante created a marvelous relief behind the high altar... » more
 
Civica Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Milan

Civica Galleria d'Arte Moderna

The sumptuous palazzo, where Napoléon and his stepson Eugene de Beauharnais lived, houses a collection that is "modern" in the true 19th-century sense. The salons are filled with works by Lombardians and other Italian painters who embraced trends from France. ... » more
 

Tips & links

Details
For more info:
www.turismo.milano.it
Sightseeing tours of Milan
Milan tours
Useful links & resources

Related pages

Share this page

Intrepid Travel 25% off

Search ReidsItaly.com

Milan
 
Milan
Guided tours
Milan hotels

Italy activities
Details
For more info:
www.turismo.milano.it

TOURS


Useful links
Train tix
Milan map
Map of Milan
Trip plans

Shortcuts to popular planning sections:

Airfares, Cars, Trains, Tours, Packages, Cruises, Lodging, Itineraries, Info, Packing, Prep, Comm

Follow ReidsItaly
Follow ReidsItaly on Twitter  Join the ReidsItaly fan page  Follow Reids Italy Adventures blog