Milan Highlights: Our Favourite Attractions

Duomo Roof terraces

Excellent views from the top of Milan's cathedral and a close up of the detailed flying buttresses. The walking to reach the top is very manageable. Book for the earliest entry and arrive early - it gets busy fast. Don't bother with the main interior - you get to see a snippet of it when exiting the roof terraces.

Milan Food Tour 

Highly recommended. Ours was Navigli Food and Drinks Tour with Eating Europe, but many other tours are also well rated. Navigli is the district surrounding the canal and we were taken on a walking tour of the area, including seeing ancient columns and arches. We were given tastings at various eateries on the way around, sampling traditional Milanese and other Italian cuisines, such as saffron risotto, polenta 'grits', chickpea pancake and tiramisu, with wine and beers. The guide was very chatty and informative. It lasted about 3.5 hours. There were about 12 people on the tour and it was a lovely way to meet and chat with people from across the world (in this case, mostly Americans). 

Milan tutored wine tasting 

We used the Wine Tasting Experience hosted by Hidden Experiences, although there were a few other well rated tastings to choose from. We were the only ones booked for the experience, so if you prefer to be in a slightly larger group, it's worth checking reviews. Nonetheless, we enjoyed a tailored experience hosted by an Italian sommelier who explained how to best identify different aromas and flavours of wine, how to observe the wine to determine the alcohol content and age. We also learnt how to estimate the quality of sparkling wine by observing the bubbles and how to pair wine with food. 

Chiesa Di San Maurizio Al Monastero Maggiore

Whilst not especially extravagant from outside, this small church is packed with incredible Renaissance paintings covering every wall and ceiling. It's often called Milan’s Sistine Chapel because of its beautiful, detailed artwork from the 1500s. The highlight is the nuns' choir section at the back, filled with even more stunning paintings. Entrance is free, and it doesn’t seem to get busy.

Santuario di San Bernardino alle Ossa

A small church in Milan, famous for its fascinating bone chapel. The walls are covered in human skulls and bones, arranged in patterns. Built in the 1200s, it once held plague victims' remains.

Giusti Balsamic shop

A historic, family-run producer of traditional balsamic vinegar since 1605. Famous for its aged, artisanal balsamic vinegars, it offers high-quality products from 12-year-old to 100-year-old vinegars. Visitors can tour, taste, and buy directly at their shop. 

QC Termemilano Spa

Milan’s high-tech wellness escape, featuring chromotherapy pools, aromatic steam rooms with projections, and immersive sound baths. Five hours seemed to pass in a matter of minutes. Our favourite parts included:

The monsoon room, with cinema screens surrounding the room which play various intense films of nature and, at certain points, a deluge of monsoon-style rain descending from above you. 

The forest of wonders - a large dark room with a soft night time feel and gently drifting lights, like warm white snowflakes. White trees surround you, as you relax on swinging beds. This area also includes a large trampoline covered in cushions, with mirrors above, a night-time comfy birdsong area, with suspended wooden bird houses that are lit in gentle red, and a super soft plush carpeted area to gaze at the moon.

Outside, Roman ruins surround the outdoor bubbly pool complex, with an old yellow tram converted into a sauna. 

If you book an evening slot, included is a 30 minute aperitivo buffet, in which you can make your own cocktails, and the ruins and tram are beautifully lit in the dark. 

Must-visit Eateries in Milan

All'Antico Vinaio

This has recently branched from its original location in Florence and is famous for its huge, freshly baked foccacia sandwiches stuffed with a large variety of quality Italian fillings. We chose La Numero 4 (cooked ham, cream of truffle, smoked cheese) and La Paradiso (mortadella, pistachio cream, stracciatella cheese), the latter was our preference, but both were tasty. 

Il Cannolo

Delicious crispy Sicilian cigars, similar to brandy snaps, filled with sweetened ricotta cheese. They also sell excellent granita.

Mascherpa

Specialising in tiramisu of many flavours, served in jars. The main cream is delicious and made with mascapone, cream, eggs and sugar.

Mag Cafe

After sampling several cocktail establishments, this was our fast favourite. Well constructed with interesting use of botanicals. It is also situated on Navigli canal, so a lovely spot for a drink. 

Artico gelato

We tried gelato from a vast range of sellers, thinking gelato would be pretty similar in quality wherever you bought it. We were wrong - most are 'ok', but just a few are excellent and keep you coming back for more. Artico gelato is very consistent in its silky smooth texture and intense flavour (we were also pleased to discover it is a chain, so may have the chance to visit in other Italian cities). Whilst all flavours we tried were excellent, salted pistachio really stood out. It is also very reasonably priced, at 3 scoops for around 4 Euros. 

Bergamo

A day trip to Bergamo from Milan is a must. The narrow, winding, cobbled streets of the Old Town are a pleasure to explore and filled with tourist shops and eateries. The old town is on a hill overlooking the city below, with stunning views. There is also impressive architecture to enjoy and the chorus of ringing bells adds to the experience.

Santa Maria Basilica - 

A spectacular interior filled wall to ceiling with golden frescoes and tapestries. This is the most impressive church interior we have ever seen (we have visited many others in Rome, Florence, Venice and Milan). 

Campanone Tower - 

Ascend this tower (lift or stairs, no price difference) for wonderful views from the centre of the old town. The ticket includes a museum, which has nice multimedia effects, but we struggled to acquire an app which translated everything into English, so couldn't make any sense of the museum

Rocca di Bergamo

No need to enter the castle, just head to the grounds for amazing views from the highest point of the Old town.

Vigilio Funicular and City Walls

It's worth catching the funicular to Vigilio Castle for impressive views over the old town. Upon returning to the bottom, walk anticlockwise along the city walls until you reach St Augustine's gate for yet more beautiful views, this time of the new town (the rest of the wall also has nice views, but this part is the best). 

Il Fornaio-

An excellent lunchtime bakery.

This was a large slice of foccacia with generous amounts of beef, burrata (a creamy mozzarella) and pesto oil.

Torta di Polenta - a wonderful sweet traditional polenta cake covered in marzipan from Bergamo. This had a contemporary twist of a hazelnut cream. A must try.

Como - 

Take the funicular up to Brunate. Then use the shuttle service in the open backed 4x4 up to the lighthouse view; you save yourself a long, steep walk up. You should walk back down (we didn't) as the shuttle doesn't keep to time well and we waited quite a while to be picked up.

The views from the lighthouse are spectacular and you can see over to Switzerland; unfortunately the lighthouse was closed although it was well worth going anyway.

Travel to the funicular early (we were there for 10ish). It was extremely busy at 12 noon.

A boat trip on Como is a perfect temperature when it is hot on the shore. You can see lots of the beautiful villas and the captain provides some interesting commentary. Doing a boat tour rather than the ferry saves a lot of time queuing and being on a small boat means you have a better view.

We did this tour:

https://www.getyourguide.com/como-l101235/lake-como-shared-small-group-tour-and-prosecco-aperitif-t810677/?utm_source=getyourguide&utm_medium=sharing&utm_campaign=activity_details

 It was however about 30mins late to set-off, with poor communication. 

Walking around Como centre has a nice variety of squares and architecture. The walk to Villa Olmo is nice but long - so if you don't go into Villa Olmo there's not much point (we don't know how good Villa Olmo is inside as it was closed for restoration).