Milan
Italy'S Second City And Its Financial, Fashion And Design Capital, Capital Of Lombardy, Holding The Largest Cathedral In Italy And Leonardo'S Last Supper · Milan, Lombardy
Italy's second city, its business capital, and the one visitors most often write off after half a day. It is not a beautiful city in the way Florence or Venice are, largely because it was heavily bombed in 1943 and rebuilt for work rather than for looking at, and the centre is banks and offices rather than piazzas. What it has instead is a cathedral that took nearly six centuries and is the largest in Italy, a Leonardo mural on a refectory wall that survived the bomb that took the rest of the building, an opera house that decides reputations, and the design and fashion industries that actually run the place. The right approach is to book the two things that need booking months out, walk the roof of the Duomo, and then spend the time in Brera and the Navigli rather than hunting monuments. It is also the gateway to the lakes and the Alps, which is what most people are really using it for, and there is no shame in that: Como is under an hour from Centrale and the city knows it.
Piazza del Duomo, Milan, Lombardy, 20122, Italy
NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED, and the city has none: the piazza, the Galleria and the Navigli are public. What matters is BOOKING rather than opening. THE LAST SUPPER runs fixed fifteen-minute timed slots, capped at very small groups, sold months ahead, and a missed slot is forfeited. The DUOMO sells tiered tickets with the roof by stairs or by lift and closes the terraces in bad weather. Several museums close on Mondays. La Scala runs a performance season. Confirm the Last Supper first.