Best things to do in Milan, Italy: discover the city of style and culture

Often called Italy’s most modern, fast-paced city, Milan can seem distant at first glance. But look closer, and its elegance begins to reveal itself: Renaissance courtyards hidden behind plain façades, cloisters where time moves differently, storefronts where design is more than a profession, it’s a philosophy.

Milan’s charm is subtle. You’ll find it in the hush before La Scala’s curtain rises, in the silhouette of a rooftop, in the warmth of risotto allo zafferano, the geometry of the Galleria’s glass dome, or a sunset that stains the Navigli golden.

Discover the best things to do in Milan: a city where history, design, and everyday life come together in unexpected harmony.

1. The Duomo di Milano: where stone becomes light

No matter how many cathedrals you’ve seen, nothing prepares you for the surreal beauty of the Duomo di Milano. Rising from the city’s heart like a vision, it’s a lacework of marble and air, devotion and ambition; a masterpiece nearly six centuries in the making.

Inside, colored light pours through towering stained-glass windows, painting the stone floor in crimson, gold, and violet. The vast interior: solemn, gothic, infinite; feels older than memory.

But it’s on the rooftop that the Duomo reveals its greatest secret. Ascend by stairs or elevator, and wander among spires and statues rising like a forest of saints. Above it all, perched on the highest spire, the golden Madonnina shines, radiant, serene, and ever watchful over the city. Below, Milan stretches out: tiled roofs, baroque domes, glass towers, and on clear days, the snowy peaks of the Alps.

2. Under the glass dome: rituals and reflections in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II

More than a shopping arcade, Milan’s Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II is a drawing room where elegance is lived. Built between 1865 and 1877, this covered passage connects Piazza del Duomo to La Scala, weaving fashion, architecture, and ritual into one.

Prada’s first boutique still stands here, alongside historic bookshops and cafés where generations of intellectuals and opera-goers have lingered.

Above, a glass-and-iron dome lets the light pour in, framing the elegance below. On the ground, mosaic floors reflect the city’s taste for enduring rituals: the slow swirl of an aperitivo, the turn of a heel over the bull mosaic for luck; small gestures that continue, almost unnoticed, in the rhythm of daily life.

3. Step Into the soul of Milan at Teatro alla Scala

There are opera houses, and then there’s Teatro alla Scala, commonly known as La Scala, the beating heart of Milanese culture.

Since 1778, and rising anew after WWII, La Scala has hosted legends: Verdi, Puccini, Toscanini, voices and compositions that defined opera’s greatest moments. It’s where Verdi’s Otello and Falstaff premiered, where Maria Callas captivated audiences, and where the plush red velvet seats and gilded balconies still awaken a sacred thrill.

Even without attending a performance, the museum and backstage tours reveal an intimate glimpse into this living legend. For lovers of music and culture, Teatro alla Scala is not just one of the best things to do in Milan: it’s the city’s very soul laid bare.

4. In the presence of silence: Leonardo’s Last Supper

Behind the modest brick façade of Santa Maria delle Grazie (the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie), the former convent’s dining hall holds a timeless secret. Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper isn’t just a painting: it’s part of the very wall, an intimate encounter.

Painted between 1495 and 1498 for the Dominican friars who once dined in that very room, the mural captures the exact instant Christ reveals that one of the apostles will betray him.

Unlike traditional frescoes, Leonardo used experimental techniques that allowed for greater nuance, but made the painting vulnerable to time and decay. What remains is a delicate, timeworn masterpiece, powerful in its fragility.

5. Brera, where Milan slows down

In Brera, Milan steps out of the rush and into something quieter. Tucked between narrow streets and quiet courtyards, it’s where Milan lowers its voice and lets beauty speak in whispers.

Begin at the Pinacoteca di Brera, where silence and light frame the masterpieces of Caravaggio, Raphael, and Piero della Francesca. Housed in a former monastery, the gallery holds space for both sacred subjects and the quiet depths of human expression.

Step outside, and the same gentle rhythm continues. The fine arts academy shares the building with the gallery, and its students often sketch beneath the ivy-draped arcades, notebooks balanced on their knees. Bookshops and galleries open onto cobbled streets. Artisan studios display objects shaped by hand and imagination.

6. Triennale Milano: where design becomes language

In Milan, design is an identity. And nowhere is that more tangible than inside Triennale Milano, housed within the rationalist beauty of the Palazzo dell’Arte, on the edge of Parco Sempione.

This isn’t a traditional museum. It’s a living archive of Italian creativity, where chairs tell stories, lamps explore ideas, and everyday objects question how we live.

Exhibitions shift regularly: from avant-garde architecture to graphic design, from Olivetti typewriters to radical prototypes that never left the drawing board. Every detail reflects Italy’s pursuit of elegance through function.

Outside, the modern geometry of the Triennale contrasts with the natural flow of the park. It’s Milan in conversation: heritage meets innovation, stillness meets change.

7. Climb the Torre Branca for a new perspective

Nestled in the heart of Parco Sempione, just behind the grand Castello Sforzesco and embraced by lush trees, the sleek steel spire of Torre Branca rises with minimalist elegance. Designed by Gio Ponti in the 1930s, this tower is a quiet icon of modern Milan.

From its summit, Milan unfolds in unexpected ways: to the east, the Duomo’s delicate spires pierce the sky; to the west, the graceful curve of the Arco della Pace frames the horizon; to the north, the shimmering towers of Porta Nuova shape the skyline, and beyond them, on clear days, the snow-capped Alps stand guard in the distance.

8. The soul of water: Navigli, between echoes and evenings

Once part of an ambitious canal system linking Milan to the Po River, refined in part by Leonardo da Vinci’s hydraulic genius, the Navigli district now offers a more informal side of the city.

By day, life moves quietly along the Naviglio Grande. Small bookshops, vintage stores, and artisan workshops open onto the towpath. Locals ride bikes across narrow bridges. A few steps away, the Darsena, once the city’s commercial port, has become a wide, open basin for walking, reading, or watching life unfold by the water.

As evening falls, the mood shifts. Cafés and bars fill up, especially around aperitivo time (the Italian pre-dinner ritual of drinks and light snacks). Tables crowd the canal edge, and the sounds of music, conversation, and clinking glasses carry on into the night.

Navigli isn’t just a nightlife district; it’s a place where the city breathes differently: sometimes a little slower, sometimes a little louder, but always by the water.

9. Experience Milanese cuisine where the locals go

Milanese cuisine is warm and comforting, rooted in tradition. Think of risotto allo zafferano, a creamy, saffron-infused rice dish, or the classic cotoletta alla milanese, a breaded veal cutlet, crispy on the outside and tender inside.

To truly savor these flavors, step off the usual tourist path. Seek out family-run trattorie and rustic osterie, where traditional Milanese dishes are served with warmth and history in every bite.

Best things to do in Milan: where tradition meets innovation

Milan isn’t a city you take in all at once. It reveals itself gradually, in contrast. You see it in the stillness of a cloister, the sharp geometry of a modern building beside centuries-old stone, and the quiet hum of the city’s creative pulse, from design studios to opera halls.

Here, every corner tells a story: of tradition meeting innovation, of past and present sharing the same space without losing their edge.

The best things to do in Milan aren’t just stops on a map, they’re snapshots of how the city lives and breathes. And few moments capture that spirit more vividly than an evening at Teatro alla Scala.

Let the city’s artistic soul stay with you, long after the final curtain falls.