The Dome - credit: artonline - Marco Musso

Milan is a city in Lobardy, Northern Italy. This metropolis is famous for its fashion houses and shops (such as along via Montenapoleone) and the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele in the Piazza Duomo.

When to Go: Milan has a humid subtropical climate. In respect of most of Italy, which is famous for a comfortable Mediterranean climate, Milan’s winters are typically damp and cold, while summers are warm and muggy at times.

Average temperatures are -3/+6°C in January and +15/+28°C in July. Snowfalls are fairly common in winter, even if in the last 15-20 years they have decreased in frequency and amount. Humidity is high during the whole year and annual rain averages about 1000 mm (40 in).

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele - credit: Welshdan

What to See: Milan is one of the major artistic centers of northern Italy. Worth a visit:

• The Dome, the world’s largest collection of marble statues with the widely visible golden Madonna statue on top of the spire, la Madunina (little Madonna), the symbol of Milan.
• Teatro alla Scala. Milan is also one of the most important centers in the world for lyric opera, with his famous Teatro alla Scala (La Scala).
• The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, a large, covered arcade linking the Duomo’s piazza with the Teatro alla Scala.
• The Castello Sforzesco
• The Basilica of Sant’Ambrogio
• The Palaeo-Christian Basilica of San Lorenzo
• The Biblioteca Ambrosiana, containing drawings and notebooks by Leonardo da Vinci among its vast holdings of books, manuscripts, and drawings, and is one of the main repositories of European culture. The city is also the home of the Brera Academy of Fine Arts.
• The church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, which houses one of the most famous paintings of Leonardo da Vinci, The Last Supper (L’ultima cena or Il cenacolo).
• The Pinacoteca di Brera, Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Poldi Pezzoli, the Bagatti Valsecchi Museum and the Musei del Castello galleries, which host a great number of pictorial masterpieces.

How to Arrive

Airports - The city has a large international airport known as Malpensa International Airport (MXP). It’s connected to the downtown with the “Malpensa Express” railway service (from Cadorna Station and central station ). Milan also has the Linate Airport (LIN), connected with bus line 73 (from S. Babila). A third airport is Orio al Serio (BGY), close to the city of Bergamo.

How to Move Around

Subways - Milan has 3 subway lines (M1 – red, M2 – green, M3 – yellow) and the system, called Milan Metro – “La Metro”, running for more than 80 km.

Milan also has one of the most extensive tramway systems in the world, with more than 286 km of track, and 20 lines. The local transport authority (ATM) transported more than 600 million passengers in 2003 .

Railways - Milan is the second railway hub of Italy, and the five major stations of Milan, among which the Milan Central station, are among Italy’s busiest. Regional railways are the ferrovie nord.

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