It's said that Milan is not like the rest of Italy and it's certainly true that the fashion and industrial capital of the country isn't overflowing with treasures like Florence or Rome, but then where does? Milan's magnificent cathedral and Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper are just two of its wonders that any city could be proud of and as for not being very 'Italian' – well grab a lunchtime table at a popular local trattoria and find out.
One of the world's greatest opera houses
Undoubtedly one of the finest opera houses in the world, the Teatro alla Scala, to the north of the Duomo, has a notoriously demanding audience....
read more
Modern art with a cause
Founders of Casa Museo Boschi-di Stefano, a husband and wife by the names of Antonio Boschi and Marieda di Stefano, took their modern art collection seriously: they once sold their car to buy more paintings, and hid part of their collection behind a false wall in their country home during the war....
read more
Former residence of the Bagatti Valescchi brothers
This late 19th-century neo-Renaissance palazzo - residence of the Bagatti Valsecchi brothers, Fausto and Giuseppe - opened as a museum in 1994, a tribute to the extraordinary tastes of the two collectors....
read more
The city's principal modern art space
Milan doesn't have a contemporary art museum; perhaps most of its current-day creativity goes into the fashion industry....
read more
Avant-garde art gallery
Photography, oil on canvas and avant-garde sculpture predominate at Annarumma 404, Milan's outpost of the gallery founded in Naples in 2002 (it's still there)....
read more
A cathedral of shopping
A paradise for shoppers in one of Europe's capitals of fashion, the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II next to the Duomo has been one of the city's main attractions since 1867....
read more
Fresh food from old recipes
Giovanni Galli Pasticceria is Milan's best address for marrons glacés, made daily with fresh chestnuts in Galli's own kitchens, according to its own 1898 recipe....
read more

© 2009 Stay.com