Top Attractions in Milan
On a trip or holiday everyone seeks what they enjoy most. For some it’s art, for others food, recreation or nature. With its various districts - each with its own unique atmosphere - and its characteristic eclectic and energetic spirit, Milan is a city that can please everyone.
Duomo di Milano - Cathedral
The construction of the Duomo di Milano initiated in 1386 on the site of the ancient basilicas of Santa Tecla and Santa Maria Maggiore, which were then demolished at a later date. Dedicated to Maria Nascente, the cathedral was commissioned by Gian Galeazzo Visconti and had a dual purpose: the plan was to replace the sites of worship in the heart of Milan with an imposing edifice and it was also intended to celebrate the Visconti Signoria and its ambitious expansion policy.
It is the largest and most complex Gothic building in Italy, made of pink-veined white marble from the Candoglia quarries, in the Val d'Ossola. It is 157 metres in length and covers an area of 11,700 m2. The highest spire measures 108.5 and, in October 1774, the golden 4,16 metre-high statue of the Madonna by the sculptor Giuseppe Perego was placed on its pinnacle
Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II - Ottagono
The Galleria, a place of transit for busy managers or a stop for enchanted and curious tourists, expresses the various faces of the city through its many facets. As soon as it was finished, the Galleria became immediately famous for its large size, extraordinary for the time and sign of a new era.
The 20th century is synonymous with modernity and progress. It’s an intricate and complex historical period that saw technical accelerations, engineering-industrial products, and, in general, the rise of the work of the human genius.
Considered one of the sites of Milanese luxury shopping, along with Via Montenapoleone and Via della Spiga, it hosts many prestigious labels and brand shops, famous cafés and restaurants, as well as Feltrinelli Records, one of the largest megastores in Italy.
Porta Nuova and Corso Como
This urban area is a fusion of tradition and modernity, a melange of history and of innovation. On the one hand there is the Isola district - which conserves its own independent identity - and on the other the newly redeveloped Porta Nuova district that has changed the face of a large portion of Milan, fostering new connections between places that were previously completely separated. And then there is Porta Garibaldi with its buzzing nightlife and Cimitero Monumentale, Milan’s open-air museum.
The Teatro alla Scala
The Teatro alla Scala was built as a replacement of the old Teatro Ducale in 1776 by order of the empress Maria Theresa of Austria, and was inaugurated in 1778 with Antonio Salieri’s Europa riconosciuta. It owes its name to the place where it was built by the neoclassical architect Giuseppe Piermarini: the church of Santa Maria alla Scala.
Assigned place to melodrama, world famous artists performed at the Scala such as Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini, Verdi, Maria Callas, Renata Tebaldi, Giulietta Simionato, Mirella Freni, Mario Del Monaco, Giuseppe Di Stefano, Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo.
Ticinese district and the Navigli
The two basilicas of San Lorenzo Maggiore and Sant'Eustorgio, the medieval Porta Ticinese and the Columns of San Lorenzo all form an evocative setting for one of the major nightlife hubs in the heart of Milan. Not far away, to the south-east, is another symbolic location - the Navigli.
The popular hangouts that line the towpaths or dispersed around the surrounding streets draw thousands of people at any time of day or night. To the east, beyond the Porta Genova railway station bridge, a maze of streets open up between the old reclaimed industrial buildings that lead to via Tortona and via Savona: a world of art galleries, photography studios and ateliers that invigorate the cultural life of Milan.
The ‘Leonardo da Vinci’ National Museum of Science and Technology
Housed in an early sixteenth-century Olivetan monastery, the "Leonardo da Vinci" National Museum is the largest science and technology museum in Italy and is spread over 40,000m2. The museum collections - initially set up only in the Edificio Monumentale and then also in the Naval, Air and Railway pavilions - illustrate the evolutions in science and technology starting from the era of Leonardo da Vinci.
The collection of historical models by Leonardo was created to celebrate the fifth centenary of his birth and the working models on display were constructed on the basis of da Vinci's manuscripts. Leonardo's drawings were not limited to design projects for new machines but were also adjustments of existing works, plus, proposals for upgrading objects and also nature studies.
*Images Exclusively Taken for The London Man Blog in Milan.