Ela Nostos

A first timer’s guide to the northern Italian city; must visit spots in Milan based on July ‘23

Logistics

GETTING THERE:

Depending on your whereabouts, you can take trains into Milane Centrale, or fly into the city. On the latter, I will mention that there are 4 AIRPORTS IN MILAN – and we chose the one that RyanAir had a cheap ticket to, which also happened to be an hour bus ride away from the city center. That being said, it wasn’t bad and the bus ride was reasonable. From there, we walked across to the taxi rank, and queued for a ride (easier and cheaper than uber).

GETTING AROUND:

While there are plenty of buses and taxis, I Ioved exploring Milan by foot. I found it to be a clean and safe city for me to walk through. But to each their own! You can also catch the trains to neighbouring towns (see the last 2 posts on this guide) at a reasonable price!

WHERE TO STAY:

Because our stay was short, and we needed to be close to the metro, we opted to stay in Brera neighbourhood. It was very central to many of the sites and places we wanted to visit, and it came recommended as quite a nice safe area too (but it was pricer than some of the other areas we looked at).
edit: for my second visit, I stayed in the same area in an AirBnB and absolutely still loved it in the ‘off-season’ – it was safe an central. And very close to a cute cafe called Tangram (that happened to stock Almond Mylk, which is rare in Italy).

Attractions

Duomo

Probably the most iconic site in Milan is its cathedral – the Duomo. Although this means that it’s very touristy, its architecture and design is something to truly marvel at – and would recommend visiting. To see the Duomo, I have 2 suggestions:

• visit it early in the morning; it’s quieter and the light is softer. It allows you to appreciate the beauty and take your time as the piazza fills up. And the queues for entrance are shorter.
• grab an drink and watch the sunset on the piazza. You can stand in the queue at the bars and pay €15 for a drink, or you can buy bottled Aperol Spritz from the supermarkets, along with some San Carlo chips, and olives, and enjoy the buzz as the square fills with people, all under a pink sky. It’s just magical – cannot recommend enough!

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele

Located on the adjacent side of the Piazza del Duomo is the ‘Galleria’ – a strip of high-end fashion stores in the most beautiful ‘shopping center’. This is the oldest shopping gallery in Italy, and homes over 4 floors of retail and restaurant space. While the featured brands are stunning to see, the structure itself is so unbelievably cool! It is a tourist magnet, obviously.

Parco Sempione

The ‘green lung’ of Milan and one of its better known parks. Parco Sempione is great walk through and have a picnic – it’s also convenient as it’s right next to the castle. Our time in the park was short because we ended up there at 15:00 in the summer heat – bless, wouldn’t recommend that.

Sforzesco Castle of Milan

Milan has a castle (a bit of a surprise for me)! As mentioned above, it’s just off the Parco Sempione and has free entrance. The medieval fortification was built in the mid 1300s (mad) and Leonardo da Vinci was one of the artists commissioned to work on the interior frescos. It homes a host of galleries and museums that you can visit with a ticket.

Santa Maria delle Grazie

This church is meant to be the home of da Vinci’s ‘The Last Supper’ – but we realised that it is in a different closed off section and the tickets were sold out until the end of the month (it was the first week of July…). Apart from not seeing the painting, the church itself was beautiful to see and the detail inside was exquisite (free entrance).

Basilica of Sant’Ambrogio

If you would like to visit another church, this is another beautiful one to see.

Teatro alla Scala

I LOVE the theatre and really wanted to see this – one of the most famous opera houses globally. ‘Unfortunately’ (but still very grateful) we only got to see its exterior. If your stay in Milan coincides with a production here, I would recommend looking at tickets! But then again, that’s a personal preference and our stay didn’t allow for it (this time!).

Gelato Fatto Con Amore

BEST gelato in Milan! Typically, we would get pistachio with another specialty flavour. We saw that they also had granita (a Sicilian specialty – dairy-free and refreshing) in our favourite flavours. So we tried both the pistachio granita and gelato – both were amazing!

Princi

This recc was shared by a local, but we were lucky enough to stumble past one of the Princi stores to try it. Alec maintains that it’s the best pizza / focaccia sandwich he had in Italy. Fresh and flavourful!

Nowhere – Coffee & Community

This recc was shared by @michka.wilson – and I can say that it’s the closest slice of Cape Town culture we found in Italy. Unlike the local Italian joints that serve single shot cappuccinos and pastries, this cafe offers oat mylk flat whites and avo toast – the epitome of Sea Point. While I’m all for immersing yourself in another culture’s ways, if you are in Italy for a while and would like a taste of CPT, or to work from a cafe, give this place a visit.

Pasticceria Cucchi

When looking for bakeries and patisseries to try, we came across this place. I will say that, while it’s all very pretty, the products themselves are not ‘local’ – I would say they are more french with Italian flavours (like Cassis in CPT). But to each his own!

Nico Ristorante

When walking to the Santa Maria (church), we walked past a very packed restaurant (full of Italians) and decided to take a seat. I’ll be honest, we only had ‘gluten free’ options so can’t comment on the true quality of the food, but it was nice to have pizza and the staff and manager were SO friendly and helpful (which isn’t expected in these tourist cities).

Neighboring towns