What to see in Milan in two days?
Milan, Italy.. the capital of Lombardy and known worldwide as the capital of fashion. Milan is modern and cosmopolitan.
Do you want to take a weekend to get to know it? Are you travelling from far away and want to spend a few days on it? And you wonder.. What to see in Milan in two days? Will it be worth it? Will I get to see anything? Yesss, thankfully yes! Everything!
That said, it is not that Milan is not worth more days, but that, with fewer points of interest than the big European cities and a historic centre that is so compact, we can see a large part of Milan in a short time. Milan is one of those "stepping stone" cities for your trips. For the start or the end of one, because you can make the most of the travel day you thought was lost. Or you can also dedicate a weekend to it!
In this post I am going to leave you some tips and advice that I hope will be useful. It will be the basis for your first trip or visit to this beautiful city. The starting point if you later want to add more days in Milan.
Before starting with the essential places, the ones you cannot miss, which are characteristic of Milan, I want you to read this.
My tips and advice!
* Locate ourselves on the map!!! One of the most important things when planning our route is the location of the places. Especially seeing them on the map, locating them and locating ourselves too, and in this way making the most of our time.
* If you are thinking about "shopping", I would leave it for the end. We know how exhausting it can be to carry extra luggage on a trip. And as we said before, Milan is nothing more and nothing less than the capital of fashion.
* Wear comfortable shoes!! There are cities that, thankfully, we can explore and get to know on foot. And Milan is one of them!
* Accommodation.. The ideal, if we are going to be in Milan for 2 days, is to stay close to the centre. It may be a little more expensive but it more than pays off, given that we have little time to see the city. But, if it exceeds our budget, I recommend staying near a metro station, Milan Central Station.
We ask ourselves: what to see in Milan in two days?
So here is a list where, besides the emblematic and unmissable places that we will be able to see in 2 days in Milan, there are others that we can get to know by taking advantage of their location and proximity. Then I will put together a route following my advice.
The route is designed for two full days in Milan, but if we arrive at midday and want to do half the route, it is obviously adaptable. The same goes if there is something that does not interest us and we want to skip it.
I declare myself a fan of..
Checklist
Piazza or Piazza del Duomo
Il Duomo of Milan or Milan Cathedral
Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II
La Scala Theatre
Sforza Castle
Sempione Park
Arco della Pace
Torre Branca
Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie
Piazza Mercanti
Monumental Cemetery
Piazza Gae Aulenti
Pinacoteca di Brera
Chiesa Santa Maria del Carmine
Basilica San Simpliciano
Chiesa di Sant’Angelo.
Chiesa di San Marco
Church of San Maurizio al Monastero Maggiore
Pinacoteca Ambrosiana
San Bernardino alle Ossa
Basilica of Saint Ambrose
Church of San Lorenzo Maggiore
Columns of San Lorenzo
Vicolo Lavandai
Arco di Porta Ticinese
Navigli district
Day one of: What to see in Milan in two days?
Piazza del Duomo: where to start in Milan
First of all, let's go to Piazza del Duomo. It is the centre of the city, an emblematic and popular place. Marches, celebrations and also concerts are held there. There is no doubt that you will take the photo with the Duomo in the background and the pigeons fluttering around. When you look up at the top of the Duomo, you will see a gilded copper statue; that is the Madonnina, the "symbol of Milan", and it is also said to protect the city.
Il Duomo of Milan
The ideal is to arrive early so you can go into the magnificent Cathedral.. the "Duomo of Milan" without losing too much time queueing. The interior is extremely striking and inside we will find the statue of Bartholomew the Apostle. The first time I went in, I was lucky enough to find a choir rehearsing inside. Truly wonderful.
As well as going inside, we can go up to the terrace of the Duomo of Milan, how? By lift or by stairs. I recommend the second option, because the queue is shorter and, thankfully, they are not a torture. And why or what for? To enjoy the best views of Milan.
Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II
Our next stop will be La Scala Theatre, and to get there we are going to walk through the imposing and famous Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, where we will find sophisticated shops of important and famous brands and also places to eat. Even if we are not going to shop at Gucci or Prada, or sit down for a ristretto at Café Biffi, a traditional café founded in 1867, the beauty of the Galleria is worth contemplating. When you reach the octagon in the centre of the gallery, you will find the image of a bull on the floor, where you must not forget to spin around on it, doing so only with your right foot and with your eyes closed. This way we will return to Milan and we will also be lucky!
La Scala Theatre
Leaving the Galleria we arrive at Piazza della Scala, where opposite is La Scala Theatre, which we can enter on a guided tour and also see its gallery.
(I will make a brief aside here to tell you that nearby we have the Quadrilatero d'Oro, the fashion district, as we are in Milan and this could not be missing. It sits between the streets Via Monte Napoleone, Corso Venezia, Via Alessandro Manzoni and Via della Spiga. But you can do it on the first or the second day. Personally I would leave it for our second day of what to see in Milan in two days.)
Sforza Castle and Sempione Park
Our next stop will be Sforza Castle (Castello Sforzesco), and to get there we are going to leave La Scala Theatre and walk along Via Santa Margherita until we reach Piazza Mercanti, the commercial centre of the city in the Middle Ages. It is a square with several buildings of interest to see, if we have, in my opinion, more than two days in Milan.
From La Scala Theatre we could also have reached the Castello, but besides the fact that Piazza Mercanti is interesting, historic and an emblem of the city, another reason, and not a minor one, is that to get to the Castello Sforzesco from here we will walk along an important shopping street, Via Dante, which is unmissable.
The Castello Sforzesco has several museums: the Egyptian Museum, the Pinacoteca, the Museum of Musical Instruments, the Museum of Ancient Art, the Museum of Prehistory and Protohistory, the Museum of Decorative Arts and the Furniture Museum.
If you are not interested in visiting any of these museums, you should still go in and walk around its enormous courtyard.
Next to the Castello is Sempione Park, which we can stroll through and, why not, also sit down to eat something while we rest from our walk. As well as lots of greenery, it also has a lovely artificial lake. Right here we will see the Arco della Pace and the Torre Branca.
The Torre Branca is now a viewpoint, from which we will have spectacular 360-degree views of Milan. This time, if we want to go up, we will do so by lift.
Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie
For our next stop, I advise you to buy tickets in advance, because in the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie we will find nothing more and nothing less than one of the most famous works of art, The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci.
This whole route can be done in one full day, as we said, arriving early to get into the Duomo. After seeing the Last Supper we can go back to the Duomo and see it at night.
*Another option is to go and enjoy the nightlife around Piazza Gae Aulenti. We will visit it on day 2 of what to see in Milan in two days, but it will not be at night.
So everything mentioned on the first day is, in my view, what you cannot miss in Milan, places you have to visit. Obviously we do not all have the same tastes, and for that reason some things may interest us much more than others and take us more time.
Day two of: What to see in Milan in two days?
Monumental Cemetery of Milan
To start the second day of What to see in Milan in two days? the ideal is to begin with the Monumental Cemetery, because it is far from everything else, so we do it first and that is that. One thing less to visit on our Checklist. It is not that visiting a cemetery is pleasant, but what we are going to see in the Monumental Cemetery is Art, because it is a whole open-air museum.
Piazza Gae Aulenti
Next, the closest is Piazza Gae Aulenti, which breaks with the mould of Milan's squares: this square is futuristic and surrounded by buildings. Among them we find the Unicredit, and if we go up to the top we will have beautiful views of Milan. Another well-known building is the Bosco Verticale (Vertical Forest), two skyscrapers surrounded by some 2000 plant species. As I mentioned before, bear in mind that it is a place you can also go to at night because it has an attractive nightlife.
Art galleries and churches we are going to see in Milan
We continue and, on the way to the Pinacoteca di Brera, we can pass some churches, such as Santa Maria degli Angeli, Basilica San Simpliciano and Chiesa di San Marco. The Pinacoteca di Brera is one of the most important art galleries in Italy, with works by Raphael and Caravaggio, but if art is not your thing, I still recommend going in and walking around its courtyard, which is free.
Italy is characterised as a highly religious country. So churches could not be missing, and this second day is full of them, but I must stress that each of them is a work of art in itself. Another point in favour of this route is that we pass through places from the day before in case we liked any of them a lot and want to go back, or if we missed something.
We can continue with Chiesa Santa Maria del Carmine and then the Church of San Maurizio al Monastero Maggiore, go on to the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana where we will be able to see works by great artists such as Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci and Botticelli, among others, and we can also see the Basilica of Saint Ambrose.
We have to detour a little from the path if we want to see San Bernardino alle Ossa, which is an ossuary. They are not very pleasant for many people, but if you have never seen one, this is a good opportunity.
Milan is not like Rome, where everywhere you walk there is a Roman ruin. One of the few we will see in Milan is the Columns of San Lorenzo, and opposite them we have the Church of San Lorenzo Maggiore. Before reaching the Arco di Porta, we pass in front of the Basilica di Sant’Eustorgio.
We continue our route and pass through Vicolo Lavandai, also known as the Washerwomen's Alley because it is where clothes used to be washed, and we will then be at our last stop of What to do in Milan in 2 days, exploring the Navigli district, where we will find the Naviglio Pavese and Naviglio Grande canals and a really lovely nightlife with bars beside the canals to say goodbye to Milan.
To finish, I must say that it is true that this route was designed for two full days, but if you only have a half day it also works, but as I said.. Always locate ourselves on the map and bear in mind how close or far apart the places we want to see are! We still have more places to see and things to do in Milan. Thankfully.. it is always good to have an excuse to come back!
