Why Milan is perfect for an art-filled city break
No other city in Italy can claim to be at the vanguard of virtually all matters socio-cultural. Milan is a city where vogue designs are set, culinary fads take root, and fashion trends are unveiled to define new looks. Few think of Milan as one of Italy’s great cities of art – although this is now set to change, with the long-awaited opening of Palazzo Citterio and the launch of La Grande Brera, which seeks to place Milan as one of Italy’s foremost cities of art.
I first visited Milan as a child, catching the train from my hometown of Turin to stay with a close family friend. At the time, Milan had a reputation for being a drab, grey industrial city enveloped in fog – a place to come and strike business deals, perhaps do a little shopping, but certainly not to spend one’s holidays. Of course, there were tourists, but nothing like the thick crowds you see today wielding selfie sticks outside the Duomo.
It was Expo 2015 that really changed the face of the city. The historical core was spruced up, palazzi were restored, and investment flowed in, modernising the city and transforming it into a place to live, work and play. These days, it’s a metropolis constantly on the move, a city I relish visiting as there’s always a new opening, whether a gallery, design showroom, or a hip addition to the city’s thriving dining scene. The opening of Palazzo Citterio is now set to be another game-changer for the city.
The 18th-century palazzo threw open its doors on December 7, a key date for Milan as it coincides with the feast day of St Ambrose, the city’s patron saint. It’s also the annual date for the opening night of La Scala (teatroallascala.org), a highly prestigious event that opens the opera season of what is undoubtedly one of the world’s premier opera houses. With the opening of Palazzo Citterio comes the realisation of La Grande Brera (grandebrera.org), an arts hub named after the hip district of Brera.
Anyone visiting Milan will inevitably gravitate towards Brera, the city’s delightful artistic quarter where artisan workshops sit alongside stylish boutiques and buzzy restaurants on cobblestone streets. Try Bar Brera (barbrera.com) for a see-and-be-seen atmosphere and great cocktails.
In April each year (13-15 in 2025) the neighbourhood hosts Brera Design Week, with scores of events, installations and exhibitions held to coincide with the world-renowned Salone del Mobile (salonemilano.it) furniture fair. Tourists will better know the area for its Pinacoteca di Brera (pinacotecabrera.org), housing an impressive collection of Renaissance art including works by Italian greats such as Bellini, Mantegna, Raphael and Caravaggio. In the new Palazzo Citterio, visitors can now marvel at the Pinacoteca’s collection of 20th-century Italian and international art, with works by the likes of Morandi, Modigliani, de Chirico, Boccioni, Carrà, Picasso and Braque.
The concept of La Grande Brera was the brainchild of Franco Russoli, the Director of the Pinacoteca di Brera in the 1950s, who wanted to expand the Pinacoteca to make room for new collections. His sudden death in 1977 put the whole project to a halt, and it has rumbled on intermittently for over five decades since, plagued by technical, legal and financial issues.
The idea of creating an arts and cultural centre arguably goes back much further – credit must go to Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, who governed the city as Sovereign of the Duchy of Milan, seeking to transform the Palazzo di Brera into an arts and science centre, founding the Academy of Fine Arts and the Braidense Library. She transformed Brera’s leafy botanical garden, which neighbours Palazzo Citterio, into a research centre for botany and pharmaceutical students. Napoleon Bonaparte later established the Pinacoteca di Brera in 1809, displaying masterpieces looted from churches and convents alongside monumental Venetian canvases and Flemish works sourced from Parisian collections.
The museum hub of La Grande Brera also encompasses one of Milan’s most visited sights, albeit one that is not in Brera itself – Da Vinci’s The Last Supper, which adorns the walls of the refectory of the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie (cenacolovinciano.org). Da Vinci spent years researching the city’s canals, developing a system of locks that would make navigation possible.
It’s hard to believe it today, but Milan was once a city of water, with navigable waterways that connected it to Lake Maggiore. You can see some of da Vinci’s sketches in his Codex Atlanticus, the largest collection of his drawings in the world – and they’re on display right here in the city, at the Biblioteca Ambrosiana.
Milan has seen its share of museum openings over the last decade or so, each so different from the other. Soon after it opened in 2012, I visited and wrote about the Gallerie d’Italia, which showcases 19th- and 20th-century works in a stunning neoclassical building. I was wowed by Armani Silos, a fashion art space that opened a few years later in 2015, exhibiting Giorgio Armani collections that shed light on how cultural changes set fashion trends. That same year also saw the opening of the contemporary Rem Koolhas-designed arts complex Fondazione Prada, complete with a Wes Anderson-designed café, Bar Luce.
More recent openings include the excellent Fondazione Luigi Rovati (fondazioneluigirovati.org), which merges Etruscan archaeology and modern art with displays in a striking vaulted setting, and the ADI Design Museum, which showcases an impressive collection of design objects.
Milan’s cultural and artistic offering has skyrocketed, resulting in new accommodation springing up in all corners of the city to cater to the booming number of visitors, with hotels revelling in their high year-round occupancy rates. Casa Brera (marriott.com; doubles from £521), Radisson Collection Hotel Santa Sofia Milan (radissonhotels.com; doubles from £232) and Casa Baglioni (milan.baglionihotels.com; doubles from £620) opened in the last couple of years and some exciting openings for 2025 include Six Senses Milan and The Carlton, Milan by Rocco Forte group.
August traditionally sees the city empty as residents flock to the beach or the mountains to cool off from the soaring temperatures, yet the streets around the Duomo heaved with tourists when I stayed in high summer. Hotel managers and owners have long been telling me that there is no longer a high and low season here – this is a city that is alive year-round.
Milan’s skyline, too, has changed enormously over the last few years, constantly adapting to reflect evolving societal and cultural influences. One of the city’s most notable urban redevelopment projects is Porta Nuova, which transformed a rundown district into a thriving financial area centred around the shiny skyscrapers that ring Piazza Gae Aulenti.
A large urban park, the Biblioteca degli Alberi (bam.milano.it), links Porta Nuova to Isola, previously a rundown neighbourhood and now the hippest of locales. Take a stroll through BAM and you’ll see businesspeople striding to work, yuppie parents pushing prams, and children running riot in the park’s shaded playground. To the north is the Bosco Verticale, two residential skyscrapers coated in over 800 trees and 15,000 plants that serve as a telling example of how this northern Italian city is also at the forefront of Italy’s drive for economic sustainability.
Another striking example of Milan’s urban redevelopment is CityLife, a former exhibition area that has been transformed into an upmarket residential, commercial and business district, dominated by three towering skyscrapers designed by renowned architects Zaha Hadid, Daniel Libeskind and Arata Isozaki. The project is still in the making and is set to be completed in the second half of 2026 with CityWave, a 140m-long hanging roof connecting two buildings, designed by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), a Danish firm renowned for its sustainable designs and experimental architecture.
Whilst these are all eye-catching transformations, the real beauty of Milan is that much of it remains hidden. Peer through the heavy wooden door of one of the city’s palazzi and you’ll be struck by magnificent courtyards hidden from plain sight, sporting elaborate statues, fountains and draping greenery. There are so many hidden courtyards that the city yearly hosts Cortili Aperti (literally, ‘Open Courtyards’; milanoguida.com), a one-day event (Sunday 26 May) that allows visitors to admire private gardens and courtyards that are normally inaccessible to the public.
This is a city with an extraordinary offering that is bound to impress any visitor – and all tastes. It’s a city that merits revisiting, time and time again. You’ll find that Milan is not only about fashion, design and shopping, but it’s a place with an incredible history and extraordinarily rich artistic wealth. The much-awaited opening of Palazzo Citterio has only served to reinforce Milan’s increased positioning as one of Italy’s foremost cultural cities.
