MILAN · ITALY
The Duomo, Da Vinci, and the lakes beyond.
Rooftop walks among the Duomo’s spires, Leonardo’s Last Supper, aperitivo on the Navigli and the fashion quarter in between. Then the fast train north to Lake Como and the Alps.
Only here
Three things you can only see in Milan.
Cathedrals and galleries you’ll find in any great city. Leonardo’s Last Supper, the walk across the Duomo’s roof and Michelangelo’s final, unfinished Pietà belong to Milan alone.
Leonardo da Vinci
The Last Supper
Leonardo painted it straight onto the refectory wall of Santa Maria delle Grazie in the 1490s, and it has clung there ever since, through Napoleon’s troops stabling horses below it and a 1943 bomb that flattened the cloister around it. Thirty-five people enter at a time, for fifteen minutes, into the room it was made for.
- 1 Milan: Guided Walking Tour & Last Supper Visit with Ticket
- 2 Milan’s Must See: Half-Day Tour of Last Supper, Duomo & La Scala
- 3 Milan: Last Supper Guided Visit
On the roof
The Duomo Terraces
Few cathedrals let you climb out onto the roof. Milan’s does. A forest of marble spires and flying buttresses you walk between, the gilded Madonnina watching over the city and, on a clear day, the Alps strung along the horizon. Six centuries in the building, the last spire raised within living memory.
- 1 Milan Cathedral: Duomo Terraces Ticket (No Church Access)
- 2 Milan: Milan Cathedral Direct Entrance – Terrace Excluded
- 3 Milan: Fast-Track Milan Cathedral and Terraces Guided Tour
Michelangelo’s last work
The Rondanini Pietà
In a bare room of Sforza Castle stands the sculpture Michelangelo was still cutting six days before he died at eighty-eight. Unfinished, reworked, the figures dissolving back into the marble. It is his final word in stone, and it is only here.
- 1 Milan: Sforza Castle Entry Ticket with Digital Audio Guide
- 2 Milan: Sforza Castle and Michelangelo’s Pietà Rondanini Tour
- 3 Milan: The Last Supper & Sforza Castle Guided Tour
Start here
If you do one thing in Milan, do this.
More visitors build their Milan around this one booking than anything else on the list.
The classics
Milan’s Most-Booked Experiences
The Last Supper, the Duomo terraces, Lake Como and the Navigli. The days most visitors plan their trip around.
Where to begin
The experiences a Milan trip is built around.
The Last Supper and the Duomo terraces, the lakes and the Alpine railway, the cooking classes and the food tours. The handful of days most trips are planned around, and the best way to do each.
The one that books out
How to see The Last Supper.
Only thirty-five people enter at a time, for fifteen minutes, and the official slots sell out weeks ahead. Three ways in front of Leonardo’s mural, depending on how far ahead you’re planning.
Milanese evenings
Aperitivo hour on the Navigli.
The canals Leonardo helped engineer are now the city’s evening. Along the Naviglio Grande the bars set out the aperitivo spread, a spritz buys a table and a plate of stuzzichini, and the water turns gold as the light drops. Or take a boat through the old locks and read the quarter from the water.
Read the guide: the Navigli by boat →The fashion capital
Where the world’s wardrobes begin.
Twice a year the city becomes the centre of fashion, but the Quadrilatero della Moda keeps its windows lit all year: Montenapoleone, Della Spiga and the streets between, the flagship boutiques under the Galleria’s glass, and the designer outlets a short train ride out of town.
See the fashion & shopping tours →Beyond the city
An hour north, the lakes begin.
Lake Como reaches into the Alps in a slender inverted Y of deep water, villa gardens and ferry towns: Bellagio at the fork, Varenna and Como on the arms. The fast train from Milano Centrale puts you on the water by mid-morning, and the ferry does the rest.
Lake Como day trips →The red train
Over the Alps by UNESCO railway.
From the lakes the Bernina Express climbs into Switzerland on a century-old line, spiralling up the Brusio viaduct and over a glacier pass at 2,253 metres without a single rack rail. It is one of the world’s great train journeys, run as a long day out of Milan and back.
- 1 Bernina Red Train, Swiss Alps & St Moritz From Milan
- 2 Swiss Alps Bernina Red Train and St.Moritz Tour from Milan
- 3 From Milan: St. Moritz and Panoramic Bernina Express Tour
By the clock
However long you’ve got.
Milan rewards a two-hour layover and a five-day stay alike. A skip-the-line ticket, a half-day on foot, or a full day out to the lakes and the Alps. Pick the day that fits the clock.
A couple of hours
Straight to the front.Skip-the-line entry to the Duomo, the Last Supper and the galleries. The icons, without the queue down the piazza.
Half a day
Walk the centre.A guided loop of the Duomo, the Galleria, La Scala and Sforza Castle, with the stories that join them up.
A full day out
Ride out to the lakes.Lake Como and Bellagio by train and ferry, or the Bernina Express climbing over the Alps to St. Moritz.
Tavola
Saffron risotto, a breaded cutlet, and panettone.
Milan’s table is its own kitchen, not a tour of Italy: risotto alla milanese gold with saffron, the bone-in cotoletta, the slow ossobuco, and panettone, the domed Christmas bread born in the city. Food and street-food tours work the covered markets, the old bakeries and the standing-room counters most visitors walk straight past.
See all 34 food tours →By place
Pick a corner of Milan.
The Duomo for the rooftop. Santa Maria delle Grazie for the Last Supper. Sforza for the ramparts and Michelangelo. La Scala for the opera. The Navigli for aperitivo, and Lake Como when the city’s seen.
By experience
Pick how to spend the day.
Walk the centre on foot. Climb the Duomo. Cook a Milanese lunch, or graze a market. Cruise the canals, ride the bike lanes, or skip every queue.
Plan it
A perfect first three days.
Never been? Here is a long weekend that covers the icons, the table and the lakes without a wasted hour.
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