The Ultimate Guide to Milan, Italy
Milan is probably not on your Italy bucket list, but it should be! Known as the European capital of fashion and business, the city is full of history, art, design, and good eats. I studied abroad in Milan during the fall semester of my junior year of college in 2017.
Here is my list of recommendations!
Aperitivo
Deseo—A bar with cozy outdoor seating overlooking Parco Sempione and Arco della Pace. Go here if you’re looking for a low-key night.
Terrazza Aperol—In a much more touristy location, this rooftop bar is a part of La Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. Its view overlooks the Duomo! This is a great place for aperitivo or drinks with friends.
Restaurants
10 Corso Como—A restaurant, gallery, store, and hotel all in one! The restaurant is hidden in the building’s charming courtyard gardens. I recommend eating dinner here rather than lunch because the garden becomes lit up by fairy lights at night.
Pizzium - Via Procaccini—This pizzeria has the best pizza I’ve ever had in Milan! Everything was so good and reasonably priced, and the decor is really modern and cute.
Miscusi—The restaurant is really hype in Milan but for good reason. I’ve been here a few times, and it’s amazing every time. Miscusi has five locations in the city, but I’ve only been to the one in Cinque Giornate.
Macha Café—This is a cute, tiny, trendy restaurant that (obviously) serves everything with macha in it!
ATMosfera Tram Ristorante—This is a historic tram with dinner tables and seating inside for about fifteen people. The tram actually goes around the city on the tram tracks and stops at important landmarks, all while you’re served a five-course dinner! This is the perfect thing to do for people who are visiting Milan for the first time.
Eataly Milano Smeraldo—Eataly is a chain grocery store and restaurant with locations all over the world, but it is still high-quality and delicious! Even Italians love it. This location was only a five minute walk from my apartment, so it was perfect to eat at and shop for groceries.
Greek Fusion—This is one of my favorite restaurants in Milan. It’s a small place on the Navigli that serves the best gyros and tzaziki sauce. The interior is designed to look like Santorini!
Risoelatte—Close to the Duomo, this tiny restaurant perfectly encapsulates 1960s Italy. The decor is designed to be like “your nonna’s house.” The menu offers yummy traditional Italian food, including riso e latte (rice and milk), where the restaurant gets its name. Risoelatte is a great place to eat truly traditional Milanese food! I took my family here when they visited.
Soul Green—A modern vegetarian restaurant in the Porta Nuova neighborhood. Everything on the menu is plant-based.
Flower Burger—YES!! This is my favorite restaurant in Milan. Flower Burger has the best veggie burgers and fries and, it serves all different types of veggie burgers. This place was close to my internship, so I would get takeaway lunch from here all the time. It’s literally the best! I miss it.
Cafés
oTTo—A trendy café in Chinatown! It has a neon light and lots of hanging plants.
illy Caffe Gae Aulenti—illy, one of Italy’s most famous coffee brands, opened this café in 2015. It’s located in the vibrant and modern Piazza Gae Aulenti.
Zaini Milano—A café and chocolate shop that has been in business since 1913. It’s chocolates are so good, and there’s so many different flavors to choose from. I got so many Christmas gifts to take home to my family here.
Feltrinelli—Feltrinelli is a publishing company that also has bookstores and coffeeshops throughout Italy. This location is my favorite because it’s huge and is inside the Fondazione Giangiacomo Fetrinelli and Microsoft Italia headquarters, a really modern building. It was only a five minute walk from my apartment, so I would go here often to study.
Marchesi 1824—This is one of the best spots in the city. This café and pasticceria is located on the second level of la Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II and has an AMAZING view overlooking the center piazza of la Galleria. Its atmosphere is suspended in time with green velvet furniture, marble floors, and printed wallpapers. And it’s recipes are almost 200 years old!
Gelato
LatoG—My favorite gelateria in Milan, and it was only a ten minute walk from my apartment, so I was there literally all the time. The gelato is thick and served at the perfect temperature. My favorite flavors are stracciatella, raspberry cheesecake, and hazelnut.
Snacks
Princi—A chain bakery, focacceria, and café that actually just recently opened locations in the U.S. They serve Milanese-style focaccia, coffee, and other bakery treats. My favorite Princi location is in Largo La Foppa, which is basically on Corso Garibaldi just next to the Moscova metro stop.
Chinatown—Walk down the main street in Chinatown, Via Paolo Sarpi, and you will find dozens of Asian restaurants, including take-away places that quickly make Chinese dumplings and other yummy snacks right in front of you!
Places to see/things to do
Il Duomo di Milano—Clearly the most impressive and symbolic structure of Milan, the Duomo is in the center of the city in Piazza del Duomo and adjacent to la Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, the shopping gallery. Its construction began in 1386 by Gian Galeazzo Visconti and was completed over 600 years later in 1965. You can also go inside and on the rooftop!
I Navigli—Venice isn’t the only Italian city where you can find charming canals! One of the most iconic neighborhoods of Milan, i Navigli are canals with restaurants, bars, and shops lining the waterways. It’s a nightlife hotspot.
La Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II—Opened in 1877, this is Italy’s oldest shopping mall. It’s lined with luxury stores like Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Versace, Prada, etc. But if you walk down the street directly to the left of the Duomo (Corso Vittorio Emanuele II), you will find affordable stores like Zara, Sephora, Foot Locker, Brandy Melville, etc.
Castello Sforzesco—This castle was built in the 14th century by the Duke of Milan. The duke had several artists decorate the castle, including Leonardo da Vinci who frescoed several of the castle’s rooms. Today you can tour the castle and visit its several museums.
Bosco Verticale—You have probably seen photos of this modern apartment building before. It’s known for its abundance of green trees and other vegetation on each one of its balconies. The building is located in Porta Nuova and can be seen from Piazza Gae Aulenti.
Arco della Pace—This beautiful monument is at the northern point of Parco Sempione. It’s construction was ordered by Napoleon but was interrupted by his defeat at Waterloo. It was later completed by Francis I of Austria and was dedicated to peace.
Parco Sempione—A large park located between Arco della Pace and Castello Sforzesco. A lot of events take place in the park, and it even has restaurants and bars. It’s the perfect place to relax, which can be difficult to accomplish while living in Milan. Some days I would ride my bike along the park’s pebbled trails to take a short cut to and from my university.
Pinacoteca di Brera—An art museum in a beautiful palazzo building. This small gallery holds works by artists like Caravaggio and Bernini, but its most famous piece is The Kiss by Hayez. In the back of the same building is a pretty botanical garden!
Fashion Week—If you happen to be in Milan during Fashion Week, look up the runway schedule which actually lists the addresses over the runway locations. I stood outside of the Versace show and saw supermodels Gigi and Bella Hadid and Kaia Gerber (Cindy Crawford’s daughter)! A lot of Milan-based designers will also open up their showrooms to the public during Fashion Week, but they sell out quickly so make sure you get there early. I got a chance to tour the Alberta Ferretti showroom!
some neighborhoods of milan
Porta Nuova—One of the main business districts, Porta Nuova has been transformed into a modern, futuristic neighborhood. It is home to Milan’s skyscrapers, including Bosco Verticale. This is a great area for shopping and to experience a very unique vibe you won’t find elsewhere in the city.
Corso Como and Corso Garibaldi—These two streets are lead up to Porta Nuova from the south. They are lined with trendy and cultural stores, galleries, clubs, bars, and restaurants. These are a top choice to go to for the best nightlife.
Porta Venezia—This area is in the northeastern section of the city. It’s full of commercial stores, mostly chains, so it’s a great place to shop. Walk Corso Buenos Aires and Viale Tunisia (where my internship was!) to find the most stores.
Sant’Ambrogio—A historic and cultural neighborhood of the city where my abroad university, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore is located! Cattolica is the largest private university in Europe and the largest Catholic university in the world. The campus is prestigious and beautiful as it was originally a monastery built by monks in the 8th century.
Brera—One of my favorite neighborhoods of the city, Brera is more of what you would picture when you think of Italy. It is made up of tiny, cobblestone streets, most of which don’t allow cars. It’s quiet, yet still full of upscale restaurants and stores, as it is the wealthiest district of Milan. Christmas-time is gorgeous in Brera when the streets are lit with string lights.
Via Brera and Via Broletto are two beautiful streets to walk along.
Piazza Carmine is a super cute square with a pretty church in Brera. From the piazza, take a direct left on Via Madonnina, which is one of the most charming cobblestone streets in Milan.
Centro Storico—The center of the city! Obviously this is the busiest and most touristy neighborhood. It holds the Duomo, la Scala, la Galleria, etc. I don’t recommend eating at the restaurants that dot the main streets because they’re usually tourist traps.
Via Torino—A hectic but charming walk to explore this section is the walk starting at the Duomo onto Via Torino heading south. Take the left at the fork onto Corso di Porta Ticinese which will lead you to the Navigli. Along the way you will pass le Colonne di San Lorenzo, a beautiful landmark of sixteen ancient Roman marble columns! As you get closer to the Navigli, you’ll come across cool, one-of-a-kind stores.
sHOPPING
La Rinascente—An Italian high-end department store. I was here at least three times a week. Rinascente has five levels, all with different items and brands. It even has restaurants and cafés. I could literally live here! The store is so big that I even got lost multiple times. About halfway through the semester, I discovered a section I’d never seen before that has some of my favorite brands like Urban Outfitters!
Tearose Boutique—A super cool boutique in Brera right next to the Montenapoleone metro stop. It sells mostly high-end designer clothing, jewelry, and shoes, but you can also find more afforable items like sunglasses, perfume, hair products, and home decor. My favorite blogger, Negin Mirsalehi, picked this store to be the only place that sells her line of hair products, Gisou, in Milan.
Wait and See—Located on a quiet street in between Sant’Ambrogio and the Duomo, this unique concept store was founded by Uberta Zambeletti, who has worked at the top level of major fashion brands like Missoni, Max Mara, Anna Molinari, Etro, Pinko, and Rinascente. Every piece in the store is hand-picked by her, so it’s a little pricey. The philosophy of Wait and See is “la vita è bella” which echoes throughout the boutique. I bought a cool pair of wool, plaid pants from here.
Groupies Vintage—The coolest vintage store. I was shocked in July 2019 when I stopped in here and found a sweatshirt from my alma mater, the University of Scranton, which they even upcycled by cropping and tie-dying it. Of course I bought it, and it’s now one of my favorite sweatshirts and one of a kind.
Flying Tiger Copenhagen—This is a chain store that sells everything you can think of! It’s fun to just walk through just to see what they have that week. The items remind me of the section in Urban Outfitters that has random things you want to buy for no real reason.
Cavalli e Nastri—This is a vintage store with three locations in Milan. Everything in this store is unique since it only sells vintage items. This isn’t like vintage shopping anywhere: this is vintage shopping in Milan! You are bound to find something amazing. I bought a vintage skirt at the Brera location.
American Crunch—If you are dying for some American food like I was, go to this store which only sells American snacks and drinks! It’s really expensive but worth it. I stopped here a few times and bought Kraft Mac and Cheese, pickles, ranch, and Reese’s peanut butter cups.
hotels
Palazzo Parigi—A luxurious five-star hotel in Brera. My parents stayed here on their first trip to visit me while I was staying in Milan in the summer of 2016. It’s one of the newer hotels in the city, opening in 2013. The building and suites are elegant and bright. Palazzo Parigi’s atmosphere is high-class with French sophistication mixed with Milanese charm.
ME Milan Il Duca—My parents stayed here on their second trip to visit me in November 2017. It’s also a new five-star hotel, but this one is located in Piazza della Repubblica in Porta Nuova. It’s actually just a ten minute walk north from Palazzo Parigi. It has a rooftop terrace that overlooks the skyline.
day trips from milan
Lake Como—45 minutes by train
Florence—1 hour and 30 minutes by train
Pavia—30 minutes by train
Verona—1 hour and 15 minutes by train
Bergamo—50 minutes by train
Piacenza—45 minutes by train
Bologna—1 hour by train
“ciao!”
