World City Guide

Key Attractions

Duomo (Cathedral)
At the heart of the city, Milan’s Duomo is the world’s largest Gothic cathedral, begun in 1386 and added to each century thereafter. The best time to visit is in bright sunshine, when the windows create a kaleidoscope of colour through the cavernous interior. St Charles Borromeo, its most important benefactor, lies buried at its heart. A champion of the Counter Reformation, he commissioned the wooden choir, many of the statues and the nivola, the peculiar basket that is used in one of Milan’s stranger ceremonies. Twice a year (May and September), Milan’s most important relic, a nail from the cross of Christ, which has been displayed over the high altar since 1461, is brought down by the bishop who is hoisted up there in the nivola. Visitors should explore the underground octagonal chamber where Borromeo is buried (Lo Scurolo di San Borromeo) and the adjacent Treasury. World War II bombs thankfully just missed the Cathedral’s roof, which nests amid a majestic web of flying buttresses, spires and pinnacles. Above the forest of 135 spires and more than 3,400 statues, the small gilded copper statue of the Virgin, the ‘Madonnina’, erected in 1774, stands over the central lantern, 108.5m (119ft) above the city; the statue is lit at night. Visitors should take the lifts outside the apse to avoid climbing the 158 stairs. On a clear day, the view north extends as far as the Alps. Il Museo del Duomo next door is well worth a visit. Tickets cost ¬6 (concessions available).

The front of the Duomo is now fully covered with 7,000 square metres of plastic-faced scaffolding. This is the only way to reach the 12 spires of the upper facade. It may be two years or more before this comes down, depending on the amount of restoration work needed at the top of the front facade.
Piazza del Duomo
Tel: 02 7202 2656. Fax: 02 7202 2419.
E-mail: fabbrica@duomomilano.it
Website: www.internetlandia.com/duomo
Transport: Metro Duomo; bus 2, 3, 8, 15, 18 or 19.
Opening hours: Daily 0700-1900.
Admission: Free (cathedral); ¬1 (treasury); ¬5 (terrace by lifts); ¬3.50 (terrace by stairs); ¬3 (autoguide hire - ¬5 if returned after 1730).

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II
Entered from the Piazza in front of the Cathedral, the glass-domed cruciform Vittorio Emanuele II Gallery is a vast Belle Epoque shopping arcade. It was built to link the Piazza del Duomo to the Piazza della Scala and soon became Milan’s conservatory. Winter and summer, Milanesi can be seen here, escaping the rain, browsing the exclusive shops and sipping Campari and soda in the bars.

Piazza del Duomo
Transport: Metro Duomo; bus 2, 3, 8, 15, 18 or 19.
Opening hours: Daily 24 hours (shops, bars and restaurants close at various times).
Admission: Free.

Museo Teatrale alla Scala (Theatre Museum at La Scala)
Due to the modernisation of La Scala, the museum has moved until 7 December 2004. Opera lovers should visit this museum, crammed with rich mementoes of the celebrated opera house, La Scala. Two halls are devoted to Milan’s darling Verdi, whose ‘Slaves Chorus’ from Nabucco remains the unofficial Italian anthem. Memorabilia include the spinet on which he learned to play, scores in his own hand and the jewel-encrusted baton presented to him after the triumphal reception of Aida. Rossini, Puccini and Toscanini are honoured alongside him.

Palazzo Busca, Collegio San Carlo, Corso Magneta 71
Tel: 02 4691249.
Website: www.lascala.milano.it
Transport: Metro Conciliazione or Cadorna. Tram: 19, 24, 29, 30. Bus 94.
Opening hours: Daily 0900-1800.
Admission: ¬5.

Santa Maria delle Grazie
The Last Supper (Il Cenacolo) is one of the most famous paintings in the world. Lodovico Sforza commissioned Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece (1495-97) for the refectory adjoining the Dominican church of Santa Maria delle Grazie. The painting depicts the moment of Christ’s revelation of the betrayal. The 12 apostles are grouped into threes, Christ at the centre, Judas (described by Vasari as a ‘study in perfidy’) to the right, his hand frozen on the bag of silver on the table. The positions of the figures are thought to relate to the signs of the Zodiac. Over the years, paint flaked off because Leonardo applied it directly to dry plaster (fresco secco) instead of bonding the pigments with wet plaster (buon fresco). Controversy rages over the recent removal of layers of corrective overpainting in the 18th and 19th centuries. Despite deterioration, the painting is lucky to have survived (a bomb destroyed the refectory roof in 1943) and the experience of seeing it for the very first time is quite unforgettable.

Piazza Santa Maria delle Grazie 2, Corso Magenta
Tel: 02 498 7588; reservations 02 8942 1146.
Transport: Metro Cadorna; tram 20, 24, 29 or 30.
Opening hours: Tue-Sat 0815-1845, Sun 0900-2000; visits are limited to 15 minutes, in groups of 20; booking is mandatory and reservations are only accepted 60 days prior to visit (credit cards are not accepted). Opening times can vary.
Admission: ¬8 (plus ¬1 reservation fee); ¬11.25 with guided tour, in English 0930 and 1530.

Museo d’Arte Antica del Castello Sforzesco (Museum of Historic Art of the Sforza Castle)
Three municipal museums compete for attention within the redbrick 15th-century Sforza Castle on the edge of the Parco Sempione, but the most venerable is the Museum of Historic Art. Visitors come to see Michelangelo’s last work, the unfinished Pietà Rondanina, depicting the Virgin cradling the body of Christ, which was bought by the museum in 1952. The sculpture’s rough surface and abstract sinuosity is strikingly modern. Upstairs, above the extensive sculpture galleries, there is a large collection of paintings, including notable works by Mantegna, Antonello da Messina and Leonardo da Vinci. Besides the combined Museum of Historic Art and the Pinacoteca del Castello (housing Italian painting from the 13th to 18th century), the other two museums, the Museum of Applied Arts (exhibiting wrought-iron work, ceramics, ivory and musical instruments), and the Archaeological Museum, are housed in the fortress (Rocchetta).

Piazza Castello
Tel: 02 6208 3940.
Transport: Metro Cairoli or Cadorna; bus 43, 57 or 70; tram 1, 4, 12, 14, 20 or 27.
Opening hours: Tue-Sun 0930-1730.
Admission: Free.

Museo Poldi-Pezzoli (Poldi-Pezzoli Museum)
The Poldi-Pezzoli Museum’s varied and often exquisite collection of art, furnishings and historic arms was put together by the 19th-century aristocrat, Gian Giocomo Poldi Pezzoli (1802-79). Milan’s favourite painting (after The Last Supper), Antonio Pollaiolo’s Portrait of a Lady, hangs here. The profile portrait of an elegant and well-attired lady has since become an icon for Milan’s own style and elegance. The museum also hosts paintings by Andrea Mantegna and Sandro Botticelli.
Via Manzoni 12
Tel: 02 794 889 or 796 334. Fax: 02 454 7384.
E-mail: info@museopoldipezzoli.org
Website: www.museopoldipezzoli.it
Transport: Metro Duomo or Montenapoleone.
Opening hours: Tue-Sun 1000-1800.
Admission: ¬6 (concessions available).

Museo Bagatti Valsecchi (Bagatti Valsecchi Museum)
The Palazzo Bagatti Valsecchi, built by two brothers in 1883 as their ideal Renaissance household, was only opened as a museum in 1994. Avid collectors of antiques from the 15th and early 16th centuries, they furnished the rooms with their vast collections. The result is a fascinating insight into the mentality of 19th-century Milan, which had just recovered its independence, nostalgically looking back to the days of the Sforza. Highlights of the collection include the fine painting of Santa Giustina by Bellini and the exquisite majolica and Venetian crystal glassware.

Via Santo Spirito 10/Via Gesù 5
Tel: 02 7600 6132. Fax: 02 760 14859.
E-mail: info@museobagattivalsecchi.org
Website: www.museobagattivalsecchi.org
Transport: Metro Montenapoleone or San Babila; bus 54, 61 or 73 to San Babila; bus 94 to Piazza Cavour; tram 1 to Via Manzoni.
Opening hours: Tue-Sun 1300-1745. By appointment only in July and August.
Admission: ¬6 (¬3 on Wed); concessions available.

Pinacoteca di Brera (Brera Picture Gallery)
Napoleon, whose statue by Canova stands in the courtyard, opened the Brera Picture Gallery in 1809, a collection that was enriched with objects confiscated on his Italian campaigns. Formerly a Jesuit Academy of Science, the Brera’s name comes from the meadows in which it once stood. The collection is best known for its Venetian and Lombard masters. Particularly fine are the lyrical Pietà by Giovanni Bellini, depicting the death of Christ, and Mantegna’s virtuoso treatment of the same subject, the body foreshortened and viewed from the soles upward. Tintoretto’s gruesome depiction of the spirit of St Mark hovering over his cadaver, appearing to the Venetian merchants in the gloom of the Alexandrian catacombs, is hard to miss. Raphael’s Wedding of the Madonna and two rare works by the enigmatic Piero della Francesca should also not be overlooked. The Baroque masterpieces include Caravaggio’s Supper at Emmaus, dramatically staging the New Testament scene in a pool of light.

Via Brera 28
Tel: 02 8942 1146. Fax: 02 720 01140.
E-mail: brera.artimi@arti.beneculturali.it
Website: www.brera.beniculturali.it
Transport: Metro Cairoli or Lanza or Montenapoleone; tram 1, 4, 8, 12, 14 or 27; bus 61 or 97.
Opening hours: Tue-Sun 0830-1915; Sat until 2300 (Jun-Sep).
Admission: ¬5 (concessions available).

Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnica Leonardo da Vinci (Leonardo da Vinci National Science and Technology Museum)
In the city of the Last Supper, interest in the creative genius of Leonardo da Vinci is understandable. Most visitors come to this museum, devoted to the history of science, to see the Leonardo Gallery, with its host of models (both static and functioning) that illustrate da Vinci’s intuitive genius. His designs for war machines, flying machines, architecture and production awaken admiration for a man whose ideas, even when not 100% successful (such as the rotating screw, claimed as a precursor to the helicopter), display incredible foresight.

Via San Vittore 21
Tel: 02 485 551.
E-mail: museo@museoscienza.org
Website: www.museoscienza.org
Transport: Metro San Ambrogio; bus 50, 54, 58 or 94.
Opening hours: Tue-Fri 0930-1700, Sat and Sun 0930-1830.
Admission: ¬7 (concessions available).

Civica Galleria d’Arte Moderna (Modern Art Gallery)
The Modern Art Gallery is a treat for lovers of 19th- and 20th-century art. Housed in Napoleon’s former summer palace on the edge of the Giardini Pubblici, the extensive collection covers neo-classicism to the modern day. The Impressionists are well represented in the Grassi collection on the second floor, with works by Bonnard, Cézanne, Corot, Renoir, Sisley and Vuillard. The gallery also holds numerous works by Umberto Boccioni (1882-1916), one of the founders of Futurism (approximately 1910).

Palazzo Reale, Via Palestro 16
Tel: 02 7600 2819.
Transport: Metro Palestro; tram 1 or 2; bus 94.
Opening hours: Tue-Sun 0900-1730.
Admission: Free.