Centro Storico

A look around

What you’ll be living next to. Swipe through.

1/6

Where it sits

The circle is Centro Storico and roughly a 10-minute walk around it.

How far is everything?

From the middle of this area to the city's headline sights — pick your own on the city page and these become your list.

• The Quadrilatero della Moda8 min walk659 m
• Pinacoteca di Brera11 min walk903 m
• The Brera district12 min walk965 m
• Sforza Castle & Sempione Park13 min walk1.1 km
• Aperitivo on the Navigli21 min walk1.8 km
• Fondazione Prada26 min walk2.1 km
• Bosco Verticale & Porta Nuova29 min walk2.4 km
• San Siro Stadium16 min taxi5.4 km

On your doorstep

What you’re living next to if you stay here.

• 1.The Duomo & rooftop — One of the largest and most extraordinary Gothic cathedrals on earth — a forest of 135 marble spires and 3,400 statues taking six centuries to build. Go inside for the stained glass, then up onto the roof to walk among the pinnacles with the city and the Alps beyond. Unmissable; book the rooftop ahead.
• 2.Leonardo's Last Supper — Leonardo da Vinci's fragile, mesmerising mural of the moment Christ reveals his betrayal, painted on a refectory wall of Santa Maria delle Grazie — one of the most famous images in the world. Only a handful see it at a time for 15 minutes; book weeks, even months, ahead. Unforgettable.
• 3.Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II — The world's oldest shopping mall and a soaring 19th-century masterpiece of glass and iron, linking the Duomo to La Scala — luxury flagship stores, grand old cafés, and a mosaic bull you spin a heel on for luck. Dazzling architecture; walk through, look up, and don't miss the rooftop walkway.
• 6.La Scala — The most famous opera house in the world, where Verdi and Puccini premiered and every great singer has dreamed of performing. Tour the plush auditorium and museum by day, or, for a magical night, snap up cheap gallery tickets to a performance in one of opera's holiest temples.
• 10.Risotto alla milanese — Milan's own dish — a rich, golden saffron risotto, traditionally served with osso buco (braised veal shin). Creamy, comforting and unlike the pasta of the south; eat it in an old trattoria, and follow with a slice of the city's famous Christmas cake, panettone, if it's the season.
• 17.San Maurizio al Monastero Maggiore — Milan's 'Sistine Chapel' — a modest door opening onto walls painted floor to ceiling in Renaissance frescoes. Free, central, and somehow still a secret.
• 18.Basilica di Sant'Ambrogio — The city's oldest church, a serene Romanesque courtyard founded by Milan's patron saint. A thousand years of quiet a few blocks from the shops.
• 20.Colonne di San Lorenzo — Sixteen Roman columns lined up before a basilica, and the city's favourite spot for a warm-evening drink on the steps. History and aperitivo in one.