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Milan is an impressive city in Italy that you should visit at least once in your life. You can visit this city in one to three days depending on what you want to visit.
Tip: If you have enough time you can also visit Bergamo. It’s a beautiful cozy city and only around a 1-hour drive from Milan. From Bergamo you can drive to Lake Garda, also around a 1-hour drive (it’s stunning there). You can stay at Lake Garda and the day after continue on to Verona, that’s also around a 1-hour drive.
Must do when you’re in Milan
- Vertical Forest
- Milan Castle (Sforzesco Castle) and Sempione Park
- Duomo Square and the Cathedral
- Grand Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II
- Eat panzerotto and ice cream (and of course pizza)
- Drink Aperol Spritz (it’s an Italian wine-based cocktail) and Negroni
- Do an aperitivo at Naviglio Grande
First, go visit the Vertical Forest. It’s a pair of residential towers with a lot of plants so it looks like a forest in the air, really nice. Afterwards you can pass by the Milan Castle (Sforzesco Castle) and walked around the neighborhood, through Sempione Park. Of course, you need to visit the famous Duomo Square of Milan. The Duomo Cathedral is really amazing. It’s one of Italy’s largest churches.
You should have a lunch at Luini, where you can buy a panzerotto (fun fact: when you buy more than one panzerotto it’s panzerotti). And of course you need to eat Gelato from Cioccolat Italiana!
There is a cosy place in Milan (a canal) called Naviglio Grande, where you have a lot of restaurants. You should go when it’s happy hours, that means that you do a sort of aperitivo, paired with food. You pay one price for your drink (like an Aperol Spritz) and you get free food with it (buffet style).
So, definitely do an aperitivo, it’s totally different than an aperitif in Belgium. You pay more for the drink, but you’ll have a buffet (it’s called Happy Hours, it’s between specific hours). We payed €11 for a small drink and €14 for a big one BUT it was with unlimited food. You can have this for dinner if you like.
There is a lot more to do in Milan, so explore and walk around.
