City sightseeing tour

Morning

Afternoon

Departure by coach on saturday and sunday from Piazza Duomo (Cathedral) corner via Marconi 1, (A.P.T.) at 03.00 pm.

Sightseeing tour (3 hours)
Cathedral - Vittorio Emanuele II - Gallery - Piazza Scala - Brera Gallery - Sforza Castle - Leonardo Da Vinci's Last Supper (visit assured). The above mentioned sightseeing tour is only indicative and therefore subject to variations according to traffic needs.

Price includes transport,  entrance fees to monuments and guided tour.Tickets are available at the reception. Our staff will be glad to assist you. If you need more information contact us.

Tourist Tram Ciao Milano

Discover Milan and its hidden treasures aboard a real 1920's tram. You can decide what sights to see and visit. With the hop on - hop off tram you can alight, visit and then rejoin a later tram to continue your own secret discovery Milan. The tram will leave you near the famous monuments, the main shopping outlets, and part of the "old Milan" with its narrow street and courtyards. 

Tourist Guide Centre of Milan

Estabilished in 1960, is the oldest association of professional guides in town. Our members - art, architecture archaeology, music and language experts - are all officially recognised by the appropriate public authority. With us you will discover familiar and unfamiliar sights of Milan and its surroundings, visit museums and temporary art exhibitions. 

Cathedral

The works began in 1386. The Duomo is an exceptional example of Lombard Gothic. The Cathedral was commissioned by Gian Galeazzo Visconti, and dedicated to Santa Maria Nascente. It is an immense mountain of marble shaped into statues, pinnacles, buttresses, rampant arches and pillars. The highest pinnacle is topped with a statue of the Virgin Mary.

Vittorio Emanuele II Gallery

This is the "Galleria" par excellence, the "salon of Milan". It was designed by architect Giuseppe Mengoni and built between 1865 and 1877. The arcade has the shape of a cross with an octagon of iron and glass in the middle. It is 196 metres long in the North-South direction, 105.5 metres long in the East-West direction, 14.5 wide and 21 high and reaches a height of 47 metres in its central dome. The gallery houses restaurants, bars, cafes, bookshops, silversmiths and clothing shops which attract Milanese people and tourists alike.

Scala Theatre and Museum

The Teatro alla Scala (or La Scala, as it is known), in Milan, Italy, is one of the world's most famous opera houses. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778, under the name Nuovo Regio Ducal Teatro alla Scala with Salieri's L'Europa riconosciuta. A fire destroyed the previous theatre, the ancient Teatro Ducale, on 25 February 1776, after a carnival gala. A group of ninety wealthy Milanese, who owned palchi (private boxes) in the theater, wrote to Archduke Ferdinand I of Austria asking for a new theatre and a provisional one to be used while completing the new one. The neoclassical architect Giuseppe Piermarini produced an initial design but it was rejected by Count Firmian (an Austrian governor). The La Scala Museum (accessible from the foyer and a part of the house) contains an extraordinary collection of paintings, drafts, statues, costumes, and other documents regarding opera and La Scala's history.

Sforza Castle

The Sforzesco Castle, one of the most famous monuments in Milan, has seen long historical vicissitudes during the past years. It was demolished, then rebuilt several times, embellished and restored to become a symbol of both happy and dramatic events that are to be found in the historical background of the city.

Leonardo Da Vinci's Last Supper

Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper is one of the world's most celebrated works. It was realized between 1494 and 1498 on the refectory wall of the Dominican monastery in St.Maria delle Grazie. It was documented that the particular technique used by the artist and the environmental factors had contributed to the eventual deterioration of the painting that has undergone numerous restorations for this reason. The most recent being 1999, where various scientific methods were employed to restore the original colours and to remove the traces of paint applied from previous attempts of restoration. Extensive measures have been implemented to ensure the work from further exposure. Since the latest restoration the room temperature is constantly checked and visitors intake has been restricted to groups of 25 admitted every 15 minutes.

Arch of Peace

The imposing "Arco della Pace" Milan's major Neo-Classical monument with its two toll houses stands out as a landmark in the centre of the "piazzale" or large square at the top of Corso Sempione. The original scope of creating the monument was to celebrate Napoleon's victories. Construction was begun in 1807 following a project by Luigi Gagnola drawing inspiration from the typology of three "fornici" (arch shaped openings found in classical monumental buildings; as for example the Coliseum in Rome). The Arch of Peace was modelled, in particular, on the triumphal arch of Settimio Severio in the Roman Forum with a central archway between two smaller lateral archways. In 1808 building work had got to the point of the layout of the side arches. After the defeat of Napoleone Bonaparte Francesco 1st Emperor of Austria pressed for work to begin again in 1826. He had the bas-relief subjects changed to commemorate the peace at last restored to Europe in 1815 and at this point the monument was named "Arco della Pace". After Gagnola's death in 1833 work continued and was only terminated five years later when the "Arco della Pace" was inaugurated by Austrian Emperor Ferdinando 1st on the 10th September 1838 for the occasion of his coronation as ruler of the Lombardy-Veneto kingdom. In 1859 it became a monument to the independence of Italy and the inscriptions on the cornice dedicated to Francesco 1st and Ferdinando 1st were substituted by those which can still be seen at the present day exalting the newly won independence of Italy. The exterior of the arch is granite from Baveno dressed with Crevola marble from Creola d'Ossola; four fluted Corinthian columns at regular intervals are a measure of the sides of the façade. On the upper level are personifications of the rivers in the then Lombardy-Veneto kingdom: the Po, Ticino, Adda and Tagliamento. Mounted over the cornice bearing the inscriptions on the front is the huge "Sestina della Pace" (Chariot of Peace) in bronze by Abbondio Sangiorgio surrounded by th four Victories on horseback by Giovanni Putti. The front and sides are richly decorated with bas-reliefs mainly depicting episodes of the Restoration period.

Arena

The Arena, or Stadium, was built in neo-classical style by Luigi Canonica in 1806 using materials from the castle fortifications which had been demolished a few years earlier. It is an elliptical-shaped amphitheatre, which measures 238 m. by 116 m., and holds up to 30,000 spectators. During the period of the Cisalpine Republic and the Italian kingdom it was used as a theatre, and the inside was flooded with water from the Naviglio canal to stage sea-battles.

Monumental Cemetery

The Milan Monumental Cemetery is located in an area of 250,000 mq. Inaugurated in 1866, it was designed by the architect Carlo Maciachini (1818-1899). The construction first met the hygienic and town-planning needs linked to the presence of a high number of burial places inside the town. Moreover, the Municipality wanted to give the community a representative place by joining the cult of the dead. Within its walls, Monumentale gives hospitality to graves of different cults an religions, including the sections for non-Catholics and Jews. The work of Maciachini includes different stylists suggestions according to the eclectic taste of the age and it joins together the Pisano Gothic and the Lumbard Romanesque style with some inserts imitating the Byzantine style. The entrance square is dominated by the Memorial Chapel Famedio, a successful neologism indicating the temple dedicated to fame and giving hospitality to famous and well-deserving men. The sculptures and building of the Monumental Cemetery show the town historical events and its artistic history from Realism and Eclecticism, to Liberty and Symbolism until the contemporary age, as if it were a real museum in the open air where the main Italian artists are represented.

Brera Gallery

Milan's most outstanding museum, Brera is recognized as one of the major art collections in the world. It was initially founded by the Hapsburgs in the late 18th century, as a small collection of paintings, sculptures and plaster copies to be used by the Accademia's student body. Its patrimony came from churches and the estates of Catholic clerical orders that had been suppressed not long before (the building which housed the Accademia had formerly been the Milanese headquarters of the Jesuit order). The art collection was dramatically enlarged during the Napoleonic era between 1799-1815, when it received an extraordinary number of art works confiscated from all over the North of Italy. This was a direct consequence of Napoleon's policy towards the city. In Napoleon's view, Milan was destined to become a capital, albeit subject to Paris, and therefore needed to consolidate a conspicuous art collection of its own. Literally thousands of paintings were therefore indiscriminately confiscated from churches and private collections in all of the French-occupied Northern-Italian regions: Lombardy, Veneto (and of course Venice), a large chunk of Emilia Romagna and the Marche. In 1809 the great new museum opened its doors to the public.