Milan
The Italian city that lives off next season rather than its own past
- When to go
- October 15° · 11 rainy days
- Per day
- €€€€€price 5 of 5
- How many days
- 1–2days
- For you
- 6 questions →
- Nearest airport
- 7 km Linate · 40 km Malpensa
- Right now
Milan doesn't win you over on arrival, which is more honest than the alternative. It has no skyline like Florence and no stage set like Venice, but it has the largest church in Italy, one wall painting whose tickets are fought over months ahead, and a week in April when a hotel night costs three and a half times the usual rate.
The Last Supper is in the refectory beside Santa Maria delle Grazie, and it is the one thing in Milan you have to plan. No more than forty people are let into the room at a time, for 15 min. Slots are released four times a year, three months at a go, and every Wednesday at noon a top-up comes out for the following week — the realistic chance if you've left it late. The ticket is in your name, and if you're not there half an hour early you lose it. Closed Mondays.
Building the Duomo began in 1386 and the last door went on in 1965 — five and a half centuries on one site, with marble shipped by water from the Candoglia quarry. It is the largest church in Italy, since St Peter's is in the Vatican, and the gilded Madonnina has stood on the highest spire, 108.5 metres up, since 1774.
Milan has weeks when you don't come without a reason. During Design Week in April 2026 the average night in the hotels tracked cost three and a half times what it did in weeks without a fair, the highest on record. So check the trade fair calendar before you pick dates; if the date won't move, book a bed months out.
Guides for Milan
Shorter, practical pages for one concrete question each — how many days, how much money, where to sleep, where to escape the city.
Milan in 1 day
→From the Duomo to the canals in one loop: the cathedral, the Last Supper, the Castello and Brera — a day built around…
Day trips from Milan
→Como, Bergamo, Verona, Maggiore and the Certosa — five trips by train, and which Milan station each one leaves from.
Where to stay in Milan
→A mid-range room by the Duomo costs about twice what it does by Centrale — except in fashion week and Salone week, when…
What Milan costs
→A hostel bed is €12–50, coffee at the counter €1–1.30 — then a fair week comes and room prices rise more than…
What to eat in Milan
→A cutlet on the bone, fritters made from leftovers and a cake sold by the kilo — three dishes Milan eats all year, plus…
The best time to visit Milan
→Milan sits on a plain with no sea nearby, so summer can turn heavy and humid — the best months are May, June and…
Getting around Milan
→Milan has two airports in use, and which one you land at changes your whole first hour in the city — from a direct…
Mistakes everyone makes in Milan
→Five mistakes that cost time, a ticket or entry in Milan, and what to do instead.
From the airport to Milan
→Two airports, two different ways into the city: Linate sits on a metro line, Malpensa is the international hub and…
What to see in Milan
The Last Supper
Leonardo didn't paint it in fresco but in tempera on dry plaster, which is why it began flaking in his own century; what you see today is the state after a restoration finished in 1999. Entry is €15, booked ahead.
€15 · 15 min · closed Monday · booking: timed slot
The Duomo and its terraces
The roof, among a hundred and thirty-five spires, is €16 by stairs or €18 by lift. The lift only reaches the first level: you climb to the second and always walk down, so the gap is smaller than the price suggests. There isn't a metre of shade up there — go early or near closing.
€16 stairs · €18 lift · at least 1 h
The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II
A glass arcade whose first stretch opened in 1867, with the triumphal arch facing the Duomo finished ten years later. The architect, Giuseppe Mengoni, fell from that arch's scaffolding on 30 December 1877, the day before the opening. The long axis is 196 metres and the iron-and-glass dome about 47 high. In the floor mosaic there's a bull you spin three heel-turns on for luck — the dent shows from across the room.
free
The Navigli and aperitivo
The Naviglio Grande was dug from 1177, and the marble for the Duomo came into town along it. Today it's a row of bars on the water, where aperitivo means you pay for the drink and the buffet comes with it.
free (to walk)
Brera
A quarter of narrow streets north of the Duomo, with a picture gallery holding Raphael's Marriage of the Virgin, Mantegna's Lamentation over the Dead Christ and Caravaggio's Supper at Emmaus. Entry is €15; closed Mondays. On the first Sunday of the month it's free, but you still book.
€15 · 1–2 h · closed Monday · booking: recommended
- T
The lakes as a day trip
From Milano Cadorna the train takes about 1 h to Como Lago, and the ticket is €4.80. The station is on the waterfront, and boats carry on to Bellagio or Varenna. For Lake Maggiore, trains leave Centrale for Stresa. Both lakes are a day trip without a car.
€4.80 · a full day
Stories from Milan
How it actually was when we were there, and what was worth it.
A ticket for the Last Supper: how you actually get one
→The ticket costs €15 and goes on sale in waves a few times a year, then disappears the same day. Here is the release calendar, the weekly top-up rule, and the fallback.
Two things you probably did not know
The Last Supper was painted in tempera on a dry wall instead of as a fresco, so it began flaking while Leonardo was still alive. It survived the bombing of 1943, when that wall was all that remained of the refectory, propped up with sandbags.
You can walk on the roof of Milan Cathedral among a hundred or so spires and three thousand statues. Construction began in 1386 and was only officially finished in 1965, so it took almost six centuries.
Ready for Milan?
Within reach from here
Places sorted by straight-line distance from Milan — day trips or weekends.
Italy
→The cities on the high-speed line are an hour or two apart; the coast, Matera and the Tuscan hills lie off it
France
→From Paris the TGV reaches Lyon, Bordeaux and Strasbourg in about two hours — France is chosen by direction, not by city
Spain
→A country where dinner is at ten and the city wakes up as everywhere else turns the lights off
All 277 places we write about sit on one page — narrow them down by continent, country, price or what you are travelling for.
Front row for the next trip
Leave your email and we'll let you know when a new destination or story goes up.