Relaxing & parks – All our local tips

If you’re planning a weekend trip to Milan, why not plan a little stroll on your Sunday afternoon? But make sure you plan your trip for the last Sunday of the month, except for July and August.

On these Sunday’s you can find the Naviglio Grande (the larger canal in Milan) Antique Markets opening up the area to second-hand vintage clothes, antiques, old books and local shops are open too.

A lot of the shops on the canal are local artists and if you wander into some of the courtyards you can see more art on display as well as see the traditional public style housing of the past.

On a nice day it really is pleasurable to stroll down the canal and see what interesting or strange things are on sale.

If you want to stop for lunch, many of the restaurants are open. I am often tempted by a takeaway chocolate and pear crepe or a coffee at Bar Stazione. You can then stare out the window and watch the world go by before joining the crowd.

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Antique markets – Naviglio Grande | Relaxing, Shopping, Festivals & events | Free
Alzaia Naviglio Grande | Ticinese/Genova
Last Sunday of every month 09:00 – 17:00

Feltrinelli is a major book publishing house based in Milano; founded in the ’50s, it scored a couple of big successes in the first few years being the first to publish Doctor Zhivago by Pasternak and The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, and has since grown to be a big player, and to take a place in the heart of every avid reader in Italy.

This is just one reason why Feltrinelli stores are the first place that comes to mind to many people when they want to buy a book: spacious stores, no rush, all the time in the world (and some seating) for you to browse through books and decide what you want.

The big store in piazza Duomo is very pleasant, despite being underground. It’s perfect if you are learning italian and want to pick up the latest success, but it also carries a decent selection of books in English; you’ll be able to find any guidebook on Milano and the rest of Italy.

The art section is very good too. If you are staying longer, make sure to ask for a membership card: you will get extra discounts at the bookstores as well as in museum, exhibitions and so on.

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Feltrinelli | Relaxing, Shopping
Piazza Duomo, 20121 | Centro | +390286996897
Mon – Sat 10:00 – 23:00, Sun 10:00 – 20:00

This is not a real “spot”, but I think it’s worth mentioning anyway! The public transport in Milan is composed by 3 metro lines, a suburban railway, many busses and many trams. The formers are by far my favorite way to move around the city center.

In particular there are still many old trams in service that were built in the first half of the 1900: like tram 1, 2, 4, 23 and many others. They look quite compact compared to the newer ones and give a good feeling of solidity, with the body completely made up of hard metal, painted in the typical orange of the public means of transport of Milano. The inside is quite rugged as well, with wooden seats (actually not too comfortable), but is very bright thanks to the big windows.

I think that if you come to Milano a ride on these trams is nearly a “must”! A little curiosity: a few years ago the city of San Francisco (USA) bought some of these trams that are now used over there too!

A couple of these trams are used for special events: there is one, called ATMosfera, that is a restaurant, where you can have dinner while going through the city center and another one that can be booked for private parties!

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Old trams | Art & culture, Relaxing | 75 min € 1.00
Piazza del Duomo / Via Torino | Centro
Daily

Milano is definitely not a very “green” city, but luckily there are a few nice parks just out of the city center.

One of the nicest is definitely the parco delle Cave, near Baggio, in the south-west part of the town. The area was once occupied by open quarries that has been filled with water, so to create some nice little lakes, around which there is now grass and woods.

It’s a really pleasant place, most of all in a sunny late spring afternoon, when it’s not yet too hot and it’s great to lay down on the grass just in front of the lake. During the weekend it can be quite crowded since a lot of people go there to have a pic-nic and get out of the pollution of the city.

Remember that inside the park there are no cafés or places where you can buy anything, so if you plan to have lunch there you need to take everything with you.

I would definitely not suggest swimming in the lakes: the water is not clear and it can be quite dangerous since it’s quite deep. I wouldn’t go there in the evening after sunset. It was once known as quite a dangerous area by night, now it has improved a lot, but I wouldn’t feel too safe anyway.

In winter the park lose quite a lot of its charm (as most parks, actually), but maybe a walk in a sunny day could be not such a bad idea anyway!

To get there you can get the 67 bus near the metro stop of Conciliazione or Bande Nere and than get out at the stop “Forze Armate – Barocco”. From there you take via Cascina Barocco and, near the end of the road, on the right, there is one of the access to the park.

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Parco delle Cave | Relaxing | Free
Parco delle Cave | Hinterland
Open daily

I must confess that I don’t consider myself a “shop-a-holic”, I can tire easily, but I always enjoy a stroll down Corso Porta Ticinese at least for a bit of window shopping. The area is vibrant with lots of young people night and day and is just a hop step and jump from Via Torino (a little closer to the centre) where you can find the big name shops such as H&M and Zara or close to a good bar to enjoy Milan’s Aperitivo.

The shops are geared more to the younger market with a mix of youth oriented brands like Lee, Quiksilver and Energy. However, my weakness are the shoe shops and Italians know their shoes! The shoes are more unique than that you can find in the main shopping drag and often also well-priced. What better souvenir to take back home than a pair of good Italian shoes!

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Porta Ticinese shopping | Relaxing, Shopping
Corso Porta Ticinese | Ticinese/Genova
Mon – Sat 10:00 – 20:00