I had a week off in February 2019 and was seeking destinations that offered some sun with seats available on flights, and to my surprise that combination brought me to Zurich and Milan. I very much enjoyed Milan, which seemed different to me from how anybody else had described the city. Even though it seems to lack a defining body of water, it's a city full of large urban gestures and impressive spaces and I found it very entertaining to explore. Only at the Duomo did I feel a crush of tourists, most everywhere else in the city I was greeted by cheerful Milanese and I felt very welcomed. I wish I could have stayed longer.
Photo List (Total 363 Photos)
Click bolded headers below to view, or click "just the best" for quick tour
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Central Milan (86 photos) - Most of Milan was relatively quiet during my February visit, but it was Fashion Week and the area around the Duomo was rife with people. This gallery starts at the Piazza del Duomo, and includes, well, the Duomo and the nearby Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. It continues in a somewhat haphazard way through the central city, including La Scala, the Piazza Mercanti, the Pinoteca Ambrosiana, several churches and many piazzas. It ends with the University of Milan and the Villa Necchi, which are both east of the central area.
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Sforza to Milano Centrale (67 photos) - This gallery is also central, but starts at the Sforza Castle and the Parco Sempione which are to the north and west of the core. It moves towards the Duomo until about the Cordosio metro stop, then veers north again to the Brera neighbourhood including the Pinacoteca di Brera, and then up Republica to the Milano Centrale Train Station.
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Indro to Loreto (60 photos) - I had a number of things to explore on the north east edge of downtown, so I started at the very pretty Giardino Publicco that celebrates the journalist Indro Montanelli. I went to the nearby Galleria d'Arte Moderna, though that turned out to be art of the 19th century and it felt a bit unloved. I continued on past a lovely Art Nouveau building, to an art gallery in an apartment, the Casa Museo Boschi di Stefano. I went up as far as the Loreto metro stop, though for reasons that were unclear to me.
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Ambrogio to Navigli (47 photos) - This wandering path through the southern end of the central city brought me to three majestic Basilicas, before ending up in the Navigli canals district of Milan.
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Monumental and West (38 photos) - The Monumental Cemetery was the first thing I actually visited in Milan, and it was, well, Monumental. Certainly one of the most beautiful cemeteries I have ever been in. This gallery also has a number of photos from the area around my hotel / apartment which was further west in the city.
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Modern Developments (54 photos) - I explored two large scale developments featuring recent buildings. The first of these is Porta Nuova, a broad area around the Garibaldi station, with a complex of new buildings centred around Piazza Gae Aulenti. The second is CityLife, which is situated around the Tre Torri metro stop, and which prominently features three towers - dubbed the Straight One (Allianz Tower, by Arata Isozak), the Twisted One (Generali Tower, by Zaha Hadid) and the Curved One (by Daniel Libeskind, under construction while I was there). This featured a large mall at its centre.
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Transit (11 photos) - Some shots of subways, trains and one of the airport.
