At the end of September, I had a chance to visit Switzerland and Italy on a short trip for a friend’s wedding. I’ve already posted about my day in Bellinzona, a stunning Swiss town with three castles. Today, I’m taking you to Milan, Italy, where I spent a few days. I visited the most popular landmarks, enjoyed some delicious Italian food, and even had a chance to go on an afternoon trip to one of the famous Italian lakes. Here is how I spent a few days in Milan, plus some ideas of activities I didn’t manage to fit in my schedule this time.
Sunday afternoon trip to Como – gelato and funicular ride
I got to the centre of Milan around noon, and my sister joined me soon after, travelling from a different part of the continent. We headed to the hotel to check in, and then went straight back to the train station. The weather forecast for our stay in Italy wasn’t particularly generous – it was a hot, summery day on Sunday, but heavy rainfall was expected after the weekend.
Instead of spending our first day in Milan, we decided to go on a quick trip to Como – a popular town located by lake Como. The train from Milan to Como took about 45 minutes. I booked the train tickets online – I had already used the trains in Italy earlier that day and had learnt how they work. Buying the tickets online was a bit confusing, so if you plan to travel by trains in Italy, I suggest you do your research in advance.
Once we got to Como, we followed the crowd to get to the lakeside. We walked past a gelato shop and decided to give it a go – it ended up being one of the best ice creams I have ever had in my life! The place was called Gelato Crea, and apparently they have shops in a few other Italian towns too, including Milan.
Armed with the gelato, we continued walking towards the lake to enjoy the lovely view. Whilst looking around, we spotted what looked like a funicular to the top of a nearby hill. It seemed like a great idea – we were eager to get a nice view of lake Como from the top of the hill. We walked towards the lower station of the funicular, where we learnt two things: one good, one bad.
The good news was that, for some reason, the funicular was free that specific day. The bad news was that there was a huge queue, which we later discovered was moving really slowly. We didn’t want to give up after a significant time already spent in the queue, so we stuck to it. It cost us over an hour, but we managed to get on the funicular and got to the top of the hill.
The view of lake Como from the top of the hill was nice, but not jaw-dropping incredible. The air was quite foggy and it made the panoramic view a bit blurry. I don’t regret taking the funicular to the top of the hill, I do recommend it if you’re in Como – just keep in mind that the view may not be perfect, depending on the visibility level.
There isn’t a whole lot to do on top of that hill. There are a couple of cafes and souvenir shops, but that’s about it. We saw a bunch of signs with marked walking trails, and decided to follow one to what sounded like a fountain. We walked for about 15 minutes, and… this is the spectacular fountain that we found at the end of the trail. It was actually hilarious!
It was getting late, so we decided to head back towards the top station of the funicular. The queue for the ride down was long, and we looked for alternatives. We decided to walk back down instead of queuing.
There was a path running down to Como through a woodland area. It was quite rocky and uneven, but we had comfortable shoes, so it wasn’t a problem. However, the path wasn’t well marked everywhere it forked, and Google Maps had no knowledge of it at all. We would have gotten lost multiple times if it wasn’t for a friendly local couple walking their dog there! It was quite a nice walk overall, not particularly scenic, but certainly more entertaining than standing in a queue for an hour. But, if you plan to do that walk in either direction, make sure to brush up on your navigation skills and have a reliable map with you – Google Maps are completely useless there!
When we got back to the centre of Como, we were starving. Ravenous, we bought takeaway pizza slices in the first place we saw. It wasn’t phenomenal, but it certainly hit the spot. We went for a potato and sausage one, which sounded like an odd combination, but seems to be quite popular in Italy.
We spent the rest of the evening strolling around Como, before heading back to the train station to catch the last train before a railway strike to get back to Milan.
Rainy Monday – Duomo Cathedral, centre of Milan
On Monday, the weather did take a turn, as forecasted. We woke up to torrential rain outside. After a filling hotel breakfast, we managed to plan some mainly indoor activities for the day.
First, we decided to visit Duomo Cathedral, one of Milan’s most famous landmarks. We bought our tickets online on the official website, and started our tour by visiting the rooftop terrace. The rain eased a bit and we were able to enjoy a cloudy panorama of Milan. One side of the cathedral was covered with scaffolding, but the other side fully visible.
The rooftop trail ended inside the cathedral, and we proceeded to explore the vast indoor areas. We bought our tickets online on the official website, but the system is a bit confusing. We got tickets that gave us access to the rooftop terrace and the main indoor area of the cathedral itself, but inside there were additional sections that required a separate ticket. We wanted to see everything and bought extra tickets inside the cathedral, which felt like a lot of microtransactions. Oh well, that’s the 21st century way, I guess. It took us a couple of hours to see everything.
Our cathedral tickets also included entry to Duomo Museum, located just across the street from the cathedral. The museum had a surprisingly large number of exhibits, all focusing on the cathedral – large models of the buildings, copies of the sculptures, and artefacts from the olden days.
Once we left the museum, we headed to the nearby Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II – a famous arcade full of luxury shops. It’s a truly stunning place – from the mosaic floor to the tall ceilings, the architecture is breathtaking. We fancied a coffee and decided to check out one of the coffee shops in the heart of the arcade. We had to queue for a short while to get in, but once we were inside, we could enjoy a fantastic view of the whole landmark. To my immense surprise, a cup of americano coffee cost just €1.80! In that location, I fully expected it to be triple that prize. In London, you won’t find a coffee for €1.80 even in completely non-touristy places.
It was already afternoon at this point (we had spent quite a few hours in the cathedral), and it was time for some food. This time, we didn’t go for an authentic Italian dining experience. Instead, we headed to a vegan restaurant that used to have a few locations in London, but shut them all earlier this year. The food wasn’t that great, to be honest, but we have a lot of memories from the London restaurants and wanted to visit this remaining one in Milan out of nostalgia.
On our way to the restaurant, we took a tiny detour to check out an intriguing pin that I had seen on Google Maps. Apparently, there’s a property in the centre of Milan with a private garden with free-roaming flamingos. A bit odd, but fair enough – they were there, living their best lives!
After the restaurant meal, we headed back to the hotel to rest for a short while, and then walked back to the city centre to take some nighttime photos.
Duomo Cathedral and Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II were both beautifully illuminated, and the area was bustling with life. We enjoyed walking around and admiring the stunning architecture. We also did some souvenir shopping, as some of the large gift shops were open until late. Eventually, it was time to head back to the hotel.
One thing that’s worth noting is that a lot of museums in Milan are closed on Mondays. We had some spare time in the afternoon, but none of the other museums we wanted to visit was open that day. I’m not sure why museums are closed on Mondays, but it’s quite common in Poland too, so I wasn’t surprised.
Tuesday – Castle, tiramisu, Natural History Museum
We started our Tuesday sightseeing with a visit to Sforzesco Castle. Originally, we just planned to walk around the outdoor area, but ended up doing a full blown sightseeing tour there. First, we visited the rooftop terraces. The view was underwhelming at first – you start the visit on the side of the building facing the outskirts of Milan, and the terrace is only on the third floor or so. But then, the view on the other side of the building is actually quite nice. You can see the patio of the castle and the majestic Duomo Cathedral in the background.
After the short stroll on the rooftop terrace, we we started exploring the indoor areas, having bought the tickets in the ticket office on site – they were pretty cheap. There were several separate sections in the Castle museum, and we were able to visit them all with our tickets. Most of the exhibition was your typical local museum: sculptures, paintings, artefacts from the olden days, and so on – all sprinkled with the grandeur of Milan’s rich artistic history. There were two major highlights. The first was a room supposedly painted by Leonardo da Vinci himself, Sala delle Asse. The room was closed for restoration works, but we still managed to catch a glimpse of it. Honestly, it doesn’t look that impressive! The second highlight was a room housing just one item: a sculpture by Michelangelo, Rondanini Pieta. Not the famous Pieta that can be seen in Vatican, and certainly less elaborate. But still, it was interesting to see a piece made by one of the most famous artists in history.
If I remember correctly, Sforzesco Castle had signs in both Italian and English, which is great if you’re a foreigner who doesn’t speak a word of Italian, like myself!
Our sightseeing tour in Sforzesco Castle took much longer than expected. The museum was surprisingly large! The Castle is located in a park with other points of interest, so we decided to check out those. First, we headed towards an aquarium that I noticed on Google Maps, just around the corner from the Castle. I love aquariums and was really excited to visit it. Unfortunately, once we got there, we learnt that it was closed for a private event that day. Oh well!
Instead, we had a stroll around the park and headed towards the Arch of Peace (Arco della Pace / Porta Sempione). I always find those arches intriguing. They seem quite common in large European cities, but I never understood why an arch was decided to be a symbol of victory or peace.
Near the Arch, however, was our next destination: a coffee break, and – most importantly – tiramisu. I spent some time on Google Maps searching for cafes serving authentic Italian tiramisu, and ended up picking one with great reviews. The place was called Via Pasteria, and I would 100% go again. It was probably the best tiramisu I’ve ever had!
Fuelled with the sugar and caffeine, we walked towards the centre of Milan and got a little carried away with shopping. Oops! Luckily for our wallets, we couldn’t spend too much time in the shops, as we had one more thing left on the agenda: a visit to the Milan Natural History Museum.
The Natural History Museum in Milan, located in a beautiful building in the middle of a park, was definitely one of the highlights of our time in Milan. It had a large collection of rocks and minerals, as well as some dinosaur models and skeletons of various species of animals. The most impressive, however, were large scale dioramas picturing animals in their natural habitats, in realistic situations. If I understood correctly, the dioramas were essentially recreating scenes captured in photos in the wild – in some cases there were reference photos next to the exhibits. They were really accurate!
One thing to note is that the Natural History Museum was the least English-friendly of all museums we’ve visited in Milan. The vast majority of signs were written in Italian only. I was able to understand some of them thanks to knowing some Spanish, but I couldn’t fully enjoy the visit or learn a whole lot.
After the visit to the Natural History Museum, we decided to have another evening stroll in the city centre. This time, we managed to enjoy the view of the cathedral during golden hour, and it looked even more stunning. Afterwards, it was time for dinner, and we were craving Italian pizza.
Once again, I went on Google Maps and scoured the restaurants, searching for one with great reviews. We ended up picking a restaurant away from the main touristy area, as it had really good reviews – Mani in Pasta. It took us a while to walk there, but the pizza was actually delicious – we loved it! We were full, but decided to order dessert anyway. After all, it was our final night in Milan, and we wanted to enjoy Italian tiramisu one more time. It was good, but the tiramisu we had earlier in the day was better.
Overall, though, our dinner was delicious and I can recommend the food in that restaurant. The service wasn’t the best, we felt like we were an inconvenience to the server, to be quite honest. But the food itself was great, and that’s what matters the most!
We were beyond stuffed when we left the restaurant, and we slowly walked back to the hotel.
Wednesday travel chaos
Originally, when booking the trip, I deliberately chose an afternoon flight back to London to have a bit of spare time in Milan in the morning for last minute sightseeing, shopping or food. Life had different plans for us, though.
On Tuesday evening, I checked the trains online and it looked like we’d have a quick and direct connection to the airport from a station near the hotel. On Wednesday morning, I went online again to actually book that train, but wasn’t getting any search results. There was no information about trains being cancelled or fully sold out – there was just nothing in the timetable at all for that day, as if those trains had never even existed.
Well, instead of having a leisurely morning of sightseeing and souvenir shopping, we rushed to the train station to try to figure out what’s going on. I thought that maybe there was a problem with the website and we could buy the tickets at the station instead. We got to the station, and noticed that the train wasn’t on the station screens either. Confused, we headed to the customer service desk, which had an enormous queue already. After a 20 minute wait, I eventually got to speak to someone who informed me that the trains weren’t running due to a problem on the tracks. They never put that information on the website or on the station screens! It was rather frustrating, to be quite honest. I wouldn’t have wasted time queuing for the customer service office if they had displayed that news on the screens. Oh well. Luckily, there were coaches running from the station to the airport, and we managed to get seats on one of those. The journey took longer than it should have, but we got to the airport on time.
In the end, my flight was over 2 hours late anyway, and it ended up being a very long travel day. Fun!
Other things to see in Milan
I have to admit, I didn’t plan this trip very well. It was very last minute, and I did pretty much no research until I actually got to Milan. Whilst we managed to visit most of the popular places, there’s one that requires advance booking.
Milan is home to Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper, which can be seen in Cenacolo Vinciano. Tickets go on sale on a quarterly basis, and it’s best to check the official website for up to date information.
If you happen to be in Milan and have more time for day trips, I recommend spending more time in Como and having a long walk along the lake, or even taking a boat trip. You can also visit another famous lake – Lugano – or even take a train to one of the Swiss towns, like Bellinzona.
Final thoughts
Overall, I had a great time in Milan. It was a good balance of educational sightseeing, delicious food, and long walks. Despite the rainy weather forecast, we managed to plan our time in a way that was minimally disrupted by the weather. I wish I had spent more time in advance researching things to do, but for a last minute trip, I think we managed to make the most of our time!
Also see:
Alphe's Corner 