World City Guide

Nightlife

As one would expect in young cosmopolitan Milan, the nightlife is vibrant. The evening begins with the passegiata, a cultural institution itself in Italy, where everyone, attired in the smartest clothes possible, ‘walks out’ – strolling up and down central streets in order ‘to see and be seen’. Centres of the passegiate vary in Milan but the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II and the pedestrian zones of the city along the Via Dante are good areas to go and watch.

A typically modern European feature of the city is the profusion of restaurant-bars, which try to catch clients for the whole evening and where it is possible to dine leisurely or just sit over an aperitivo or a bottle of wine. The trend is to move on during the night, visiting two or three locales, thereby demonstrating social savvy and bella figura (being ‘with it’ is perhaps the best expression of this notoriously vacuous Italian phrase). The Navigli district around the canals in the southwest of the city is one of the best areas for bars and cafés, extending up to Porta Ticinese. North of the Cathedral, the area around the Brera offers many pleasant boutique cafés, restaurants and clubs. Most bars and restaurants stay open until late (0100), after which the energetic move on to the nightclubs (discoteca), which stay open till 0400 (most shut Mondays). The legal drinking age is 16 years. Expect to pay ¬6 for a bottle of wine in a bar and at least ¬7.50 for entry to clubs.

Entertainment listings are available online at www.corriere.it and www.hellomilano.it. The newspapers Corriere della Sera (on Wednesday) and La Repubblica (on Thursday) also supply listings, as does the tourist offices, Spettacoli Milano and Mese Milano.

Bars: Coffee drinking during the day is a quick-fix for the business community; only the serious shoppers settle down for coffee and wonderful pastries. Between 1800 and 2100, cafés and bars come into their own as the afterwork crowds seek out the perfect aperitivo – as well as the best place to see and be seen. Many bars offer free finger food with aperitives. Classic cocktails often involve Prosecco (dry or sweet sparkling wine) or Campari. Drinks range between ¬4-9.

Dieci (10) Corso Como, Corso Como 10, with its slightly oriental slant to decorations is one of the hottest bars in town, as is the classic Victoria Café in the financial district, Via Clerici 1. Il Gattopardo Café, Via Piero della Francesca 17 in a deconsecrated church in the upwardly mobile northwest of the centre is still the haunt of the idle rich; it is essential to book in advance. The Garden Bar of the Sheraton Diana Majestic (see also Hotels section), Viale Piave 2 is the place to be during warm weather, especially during Milan fashion weeks. In the Navigali district, La Biciclette, Conca del Navigalo 10, with its monthly changing display of artwork, attracts an extremely varied crowd; the buffet is a classic. ATM in a refurbished former tram station, Bastioni di Porta Volta, north of the Duomo, is often considered the city’s best bar, frequented by an artistic crowd – certainly somewhere to check out the forefront of Milanese fashions. Local bars may offer more peaceful surroundings.

Casinos: There are no licensed casinos in Milan.

Clubs: The Black, Via Canonica (tel: 02 3360 3907) with its retro science fiction feel has taken over from Killer Plastic, Viale Umbria 120 (tel: 02 733 996; website: www.clubplastic.biz ) as the place to go for Italian house and techno music, although the latter remains popular. Hollywood Rythmoteque, Corso Como 15 (tel: 02 659 8996; website: www.discotecahollywood.com ) remains popular with the glamorous crowd, especially on Sundays. Café L'Atlantique, Viale Umbria 42 (tel: 02 5519 3925; website: www.cafeatlantique.com ) begins with aperitivi and later becomes an extremely popular club into the early hours; hip-hop and house music is featured on Thursday and Friday and more commercial music on Saturday and Sunday. The Shocking Club, Bastioni di Porta Nuova 12 (tel: 02 8656 4650; website: www.shockingclub.net ) reopened early in 2002 with new minimalist decor; the club lives up to its name, especially on Wednesdays with its outrageous theme nights. Large clubs (up to 2000) include Propaganda, Via Castelbarco 11 (tel: 02 5831 0682) and Alcatraz, Via Valtellina 21 (tel: 02 6901 6352; website: www.alcatrazmilano.com ) a refurbished industrial building with two dancefloors, two performance spaces, three bars and a pub. Because this is Milan, one should always dress to impress for any club or disco. More and more clubs are introducing a pay-as-you-leave system where you are given a ticket (tessera) at the door which is punched when you use the cloakroom or buy drinks or food; the fine for losing one's tessera is usually exorbitant. The Milanese usually go clubbing midweek; weekends are when large numbers from the outlying suburbs and towns come into Milan to party.

Live music: Rolling Stone, Corso XXII Marzo 32 (tel: 02 733 172; website: www.rollingstone.it ) is very much Milan’s temple of rock during the week (dancing on Fridays and Saturdays; dinner nightclub on Tuesday). Scimmie, Via Ascanio Sforza 49 (tel: 02 8940 2874; website: www.scimmie.it ) still manages to maintain its reputation as the spot for jazz in the heart of the Navagali district, although there are many blues and world music concerts these days. In the same area, Blues House, Via S Uguzzone 96 (tel: 02 2700 3621) is equally popular both with locals and foreigners. Tangram, Via Pezzotti 52, is excellent for rock and blues, and Tunnel, Via Sammartini 30, is a good bet for indie music. All the major bands and solo artists include Milan on their tours, usually playing either at the FilaForum stadium, Via di Vittorio 6 (website: www.filaforum.it ) or PalaVobis Music Village, Via Sant’Elia 33 (tel: 02 542 754), close to Lampugnano.