What to do in Milan for a day

You can happen to make a stop in Milan rich of history and traditions, a cultural and economic centre which attracts everyone. Who loves social life, a good cooking and knowledge here is well served!

But of course also who loves shopping! Milan is the capital of boutiques and high fashion: who likes combining travels and wardrobe purchases has much to discover, even if you have a few hours or only a weekend at disposal. The most important thing is to have a tourist guide lived up to the situation.

Looking Milan from the Duomo’s terraces

Surely this should be the first stop-over also with the support of a chauffeured car hire service in Milan. There is a building in the city centre which deserves being visited at any cost. I am talking about the Duomo, cathedral and immortal symbol always representing this place.

So it must be the first stop of your Milanese day, but remember that one of the most interesting landascape is that of the terrace.

The Duomo’s terraces will be open from June to September until 8.30 pm. 

You can go up among the gothic steeples and admire the city from a unique perspective.

Happy hour in the historic centre

Cathedral Square in Milan, from here your walk across the centre continues. But before proceeding towards new places you can have a chic break with a happy hour in one of the coffee bars surrounding the historic buildings, like the already mentioned Duomo. It doesn’t finish here, there’s so much to visit in the city centre !

Vittorio Emanuele II ‘ s Gallery

After visiting the Duomo and having had a happy hour you can discover one of the most interesting architectural example of the Renaissance. What to do in Milan in a day? Surely it’s worth it admiring the details of  Vittorio Emanuele II ‘s commercial gallery, inaugurated in 1867.

This monument connects the most important squares of the city, Cathedral Square, to La Scala. Here you can breath the atmosphere of a bourgeois and wealthy Milan, but you can also observe the iron architecture of the nineteenth-century galleries. It’s impossible not to remain fascinated in this place!

What to eat in Milan

After a morning passed in Cathedral Square and its surroundings, among Gothic cathedrals and galleries of the XIX century, surely you will be hungry. The happy hour hasn’t satisfied you, has it? So it’s wothwhile booking a restaurant in Milan to taste the local typical food like risotto allo zafferano (saffron); wihout forgetting the strong suit for whom is always hungry and loves the tradition: the breaded cutlet.

Pay attention! You must taste it at any cost if you are in Milan, even only for an afternoon.

Visit Brera Art Gallery

After lunch there’s a place to visit and it is dedicated to the art. I’m talking about Brera Art Gallery, an ancient and modern art gallery founded by Maria Teresa d’Austria in 1776. Here you can find the masterpieces of the Lombard and Venetian art, but also of different schools, besides a collection which embraces several ages.

Among the most important works safeguarded in the rooms of this structure you can find Il Cristo Morto e Madonna col Bambino e un coro di cherubini by Mantegna, La Cena in Emmaus by Caravaggio, Ritrovamento del corpo di San Marco by Tintoretto. Who loves art cannot miss a visit to these structures so rich of treasures!

Leonardo da Vinci ‘s work

The Cenacolo by Leonardo da Vinci? You cannot find it in Brera Art Gallery, but you can admire it in the sacred place of Santa Maria delle Grazie. But there is a detail to remember,  you must book your visit. You can insert the visit to the Ultima Cena, one of the strongest emotions.

Visit a special church

The Milan Dome is not the only religious monument to admire. This city is rich of occasions to discover important places for the Italian  tradition. Art and tourism lovers cannot miss the church of Santa Maria presso San Satiro. Why is this place so important?

The explanation is in the false choir wisely created by Bramante: there wasn’t space to create a real one, so he made a perspective play able to deceive even the most attentive eye.

Read more:

• The best churches in Milan 

Doing shopping in the boutiques

Ending a beautiful day in the ideal way? Surely you can finish your trip in Milan walking among the shop windows of its famous streets for your purchases. Which are the names absolutely to remember? Don’t lose sight of  Via Manzoni and Via Monte Napoleone, but also of  Via della Spiga and Via Sant’Andrea, which deserve a visit. You’ll have always time to plan a shopping tour in Milan!

Read more:

How can you ease all this? You can rent a private car helping you in your transfers.