Centro Milan – All our local tips

In a city famous for happy hour bar-hopping and fabulous cocktails, this bar is a veteran: it’s been serving lunch, dinner and drinks since 1907. And as fashions came and went, the stylish interior decor hasn’t changed, making for a cool yet cozy retreat.

People from Milano love to come here just as they get out of the office to get their 6 pm beer, while on their way to dinner or more cocktails or whatever. At the same time, the very convenient location helps a lot of stranded tourists find it and mingle, making for a diverse crowd.

Personal tips: go for a Mojito (a friend called it one of the best she ever had, and she had the real thing in Cuba!) or a Negroni Sbagliato (a Milano favorite: Martini, Campari and spumante).

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Bar Magenta | Bars | Cocktail € 5.00
Via Giosuè Carducci 13 | Centro | +39028053808
Tue 17:00 – 03:00, Wed – Sun 08:00 – 03:00

Chocolat Milano is one of the best “gelaterie” (ice-cream bar) in Milano. As the name says, its speciality is actually “chocolate”!

What I like most of this bar is the atmosphere. Small tables where you can sit with friends or with a nice book, eating a wonderful ice-cream or a delicious slice of chocolate cake covered with strawberries.

There are different types of chocolate ice-cream: white chocolate, chocolate with 95% cocoa, chili chocolate, rhum chocolate. Of course you can find also other tastes, like pistachio, which I actually suggest since it was one of the tastier I have ever tried. Chili chocolate is a must, I think.

If you pass by Chocolat in winter, don’t worry. They serve wonderful hot chocolate. I tried the cinnamon one, creamy and nice flavoured.

Beside ice-cream they also serve cakes, chocolate bars (self-produced by Chocolate Milano) and mineral waters from Norway and Fiji.

I suggest not to take the car to get to Chocolat, since there are not many parking places. I also suggest, if possible, not to go at lunch time, when hundreds of employees of the neighbourhood choose to have a Chocolat ice-cream for lunch!

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Chocolat Milano | Snacks | Icecream from € 2.00
Via Boccaccio Giovanni, 9 | Centro | +39248100597
07:30 – 01:00 daily

It’s very difficult to find a place where you can have a good beer that is not too touristy or too expensive just near Duomo. One of them is the Football Pub. Probably it’s due to the fact that it’s well hidden in a small road on the right side of the very crowded via Torino, just in front of the Fnac shop.

The atmosphere is that of a typical English pub, warm and with a lot of wood around. On the walls there are scarfs and signs of different football teams. Usually it’s a quiet place, but in the evenings when there is an important football match it’s full. In that case quite a lot of people arrive to watch it on the big screen in the main room.

The service, like in most pubs in England, is not at the table, so don’t wait for the waiter and go to ask for your drink at the bar. There is a choice of a few English, Scottish and Irish draught beer, like Guinness or Tennents super.

In the main room there is also a round table with a chessboard… if you are in two and want to play on it, just ask the bartender!

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English Football Pub | Bars | Pint € 5.00
Via Valpetrosa 5 | Centro | +3902864464
Mon – Fri 12:00 – 15:00 & 18:30 – 02:00, Sat 13:30 – 02:00, Sun 14:30 – 23:00

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

If you mention “Galleria” in Milano, everybody will think of the magnificent Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, the biggest and best of several shopping arcades built in the mid 1800s. But unless you happen to have won a big lump of money, few of us can afford the restaurants those restaurants (much less to shop in the very upscale stores).

Galleria Meravigli is more recent, built in 1930s in an airy Liberty style; it’s much smaller, and it doesn’t host fancy shops. On the other hand, it’s the beautiful setting for a different night out with good food, great food and, on most weekends, exciting tango nights!

Tango has a big following in Milano. Forget about plain rooms with elderly gentlemen and women, here it’s an experience for all ages; it’s a young and fashionable dance, without losing all its charme and romanticism.

Even if you can’t dance you can en

joy (with an excellent cocktail in your hand) the sight of people confidently dancing around the floor in sensual embraces, with the music ranging from traditional tangos from almost a century ago to the latest electronic tango successes by bands such as Gotan Project and Bajofondo.

And who knows, maybe the music and the atmosphere will lure you into trying a few steps–the regulars will be more than happy to show you the ropes.

An insider tip: try the maracuja vodka sour, probably the best in Milano!

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Galleria Meravigli | Bars, Music
Via Meravigli 3 | Centro | +39028055125
19.00 – 02.00 daily

With the summer hitting in full force again Hora Feliz is the place to be between 19:00 – 22:00! But be warned you may have to wait a bit for a seat but this year they have filled the footpath with as many tables as possible.

Whilst there are numerous bars in the young and lively area of Il Colonne (The Columns) and Piazza Vetra, this bar is unbeatable in terms of price to value ratio during the Happy hours. It usually attracts a young, value-conscious crowd.

Along with a 6 euro beer or a 7 euro cocktail, you can help yourself to a very big range of buffet food. Hot pasta, sausages and chips, fresh salads, Parmesan cheese, corn chips and salsa, foccacia and tarts for dessert. If you hang around till after 21:00 you may also get to taste their tasty focaccia with Nutella.

I find just before 19:00 or a little after 21:00 can be the best times to arrive and find a place. The cocktails are fresh and well mixed and the staff work hard to serve everyone as quickly as possible.

Anyway, while you’re waiting, you can help yourself to another plate of free food! If you happen to stop by after 22:00 and you’re feeling peckish, you can also find some tasty plates of Mexican style food.

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Hora Feliz | Bars, Snacks | Cocktail € 7.00
Via San Vito, 5 | Centro | +39028376587
18:00 – 02:00 daily

This is a good basic place to get a good serve of hearty food. What’s more it’s cosy and welcoming. “Crota” is Piedmont dialect for “cave”.

The menu changes regularly but it is guaranteed to have hearty favourites from the Piedmont region, generally varying according to the season. Some examples: ravioli cooked with butter and sage, sausages and potatoes, risotto, polenta, roast meats and stews. Yes, the menu isn’t that light but usually there is a pasta with broccoli or something green that should satisfy the stomach looking for something a little lighter!

The prices are great and the portions are generous. Fine dining it ain’t but with a group of friends and the wine flowing you should enjoy the cosy atmosphere and the friendly staff. It’s close to lots of bars so you kick on after dinner. I haven’t tried it for lunch but I hear it’s good for a basic pasta to keep your energy going!

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La Crota Piemunteisa | Restaurants (Italian) | Wine bottle +/- € 15.00
Via Gian Giacomo Mora, 9 | Centro | +39028395992
Tue – Sat 12:00 – 14:00 & 19:00 – 23:00, Sun 12:00 – 14:00

Luini is one of the most famous places in Milano since it’s one of the oldest bakeries in the city and it’s specialized in “panzerotti“. Bakery “Luini” has been open in Milano since 1949, when the family Luini emigrated from Southern Italy (Puglia).

Let’s start with a short description of this delicious product original from Southern Italy. A “panzerotto” is a circle of pizza dough, filled, folded in two and then cooked. It can be fried or baked.

The most typical “panzerotto” is the classical one filled with mozzarella cheese and tomato, but I think the most tasty one is the one with salami. Very popular in Italy is also  combining ricotta cheese (cottage cheese) with spinach, which is actually very good as a filling of a “panzerotto”!

Of course at Luini you can also find different sorts of bread and cakes. I tried once Walnut Bread, which was simply great. And a filled pastry with chocolate and pears!

Luini is very popular and is just behind Corso Vittorio Emanuele, which means that at lunch time you will have to stand in line for a while. A precious tip: Luini’s bakery has two entrances (one beside the other) but most of the time people stand in line just at on one side, thinking that the other one is the exit. This means that if you enter from the empty one you will get your panzerotto faster!

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Luini | Snacks | Panzerotti € 3.00
Via S. Radegonda 16 | Centro | +39286461917
Mon 10:00 – 15:00, Tue – Sat 10:00 – 20:00

So you’ve been out drinking, partying and who knows what else until late, very late. Now you’re starving, you are just dying for some food– let’s say it, you have the munchies. But every decent place has closed hours ago, and you don’t really find like hunting down one of the trucks that sell sausage and onions. What you really, really want is a hamburger, but not the ones made of cardboard and sawdust sold by some major chain–you want the real thing. And suddenly you know–Margy!

Probably the only fast food in the center to be open until dawn (depending on how many customers are coming in, and probably on whether they feel like it) and surely the best,

Margy has been feeding the night population for the past 40 years, and it’s still going strong. I have been going there for more than 15 years now, and not much has changed: not in the decor of the single, claustrophobic room and definitely not in the menu, that lists various kinds of hamburgers, fries and hot dogs; and thankfully not in the size, which can only be described as huge–what it takes to tame your monster craving.

A word of advice: you’ll probably find yourself in the company of policemen and other people who work at nights, so behave!

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Margy | Snacks | double hamburger € 4.40
Piazza Santo Stefano 2 | Centro
Open until dawn

Are you a passionate photographer and are you looking for some very high quality second hand items at a reasonable price? New Old Camera is the place for you.

It’s a shop hidden in a courtyard in the very central via Dante that sells only second hand camera equipment. There you can find nearly everything, from the last high performance Canon or Nikon lens to an old but still great Leitz lens made before the second world war.

Both the owner (a very big Japanese, called Watanabe) and the others shop assistants are very kind and will gladly show you and make you try everything they have. They also have a very good knowledge of what they sell, so their advice is always very precious.

If you’re interested in Leica stuff, you’ll speak directly with Watanabe that is in love with this brand and will explain you everything you want to know on any camera or lens made from the 20s up to now.

Since it’s a second hand shop they don’t always have exactly what you want, but if you check their website regularly (always updated) you’ll find out that sooner or later they’ll have it!… At least this always happened to me!

In front of the camera shop they just opened a similar shop all about watches: NewOldTime (obviously!).

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New Old Camera | Shopping
Via Rovello 5 | Centro | +390236589216
Mon 14:00 – 19:00, Tue – Sun 10:30 – 19:00

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

In piazza del Duomo, just on the right of the cathedral there is the former royal palace of Milano. It’s a neoclassical elegant building that is now used for particular occasions by the city authorities and as exposition center.

They usually organize art expositions that last a few months with great masterpieces from the most important museums of the world. Usually they’re centered on a single artist and include also masterpieces of others minor artists in some ways linked to him.

Some of the best exhibitions I remember where the ones about Picasso, the Impressionists, the American pop art, Kandinsky and the last one, that just closed, about Canova, with 7 marbles from the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. This last one in particular was a really great if only for the atmosphere. Instead of using the usual area on the ground floor, the statues were placed in the original neoclassical rooms at the first floor, obtaining really a perfect effect.

From my point f view there are only two drawbacks: it’s usually quite expensive (up to 9€ and 7€ for students for one exposition) and it’s not allowed to take photos (that for a lover of photography like me it’s really very annoying!).

At present there is an exhibition about the “scapigliatura”, an Italian painting movement from the 19th century (till November 22nd) and from October 14th there will be another exhibition about Edward Hopper.

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Palazzo Reale | Art & culture | Ticket € 9.00
Piazza del Duomo | Centro
Mon 14:30 – 19:30, Tue – Wed & Fri – Sun 09:30 – 19:30, Thu. 09:30 – 22:30

This restaurant is nestled in a nice little corner of the beautiful area of Piazza di San Lorenzo and “Le Colonne” – The Columns (Roman of course).

After a nice stroll around the area, or maybe after a drink in one of the many bars in the area, you may feel like sitting down and enjoying the view. This can sometimes be a dangerous thing in a somewhat touristic area. Will the prices be outrageous tourist prices? Will the food be sub-quality? Don’t fret! This restaurant will see you right.

Perfect for a good pizza and a beer or you call also try some of the Lazio (region of Rome) cuisine. The service is attentive and there is an English menu. I wouldn’t rate it as one of my favourite restaurants in terms of food, but more for it’s location. It’s beautiful sitting near the piazza, people watching and just soaking in the atmosphere.

You will find it most alive from Wednesday to Saturday and more alive during the warmer periods.

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Ristorante Rugantino | Restaurants (Lazio) | Meal € 20.00
Via dei Fabbri, 1 | Centro | +390289421404
Lunch & dinner daily

Rossopomodoro is a franchising concept, which means that you can find a lot of these restaurant/pizzeria’s all over Milan (and Italy).

Everything in this restaurant is red (”rosso”) and reminds of Napoli and Southern Italy.

There are many nice pizzerias in Milan, but going to Rossopomodoro is always a pleasure because of its atmosphere: colorful & young.

The pizza is the proper Napoletana…a bit smaller than the other you can find around, but really delicious and cooked in stone oven.

I suggest you to ask for the English menu since the Italian one is really difficult to understand!

My favourite pizza is the “Cavese” with potatoes and salami! I suggest you try the “fried pizzas”, they’re really worth all the calories!

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Rossopomodoro | Restaurants (Pizzeria) | Pizza € 15.00
via Molino delle Armi, 47 | Centro | +390289401333
Mon – Thu 12:00 – 15:00 & 19:00 – 00:00, Fri & Sun 12:00 – 15:00
Sat 19:00 – 00:30

Just beside the very famous “last supper” of Leonardo da Vinci there is one of the most beautiful churches of Milano and one of the best examples of architecture of the renaissance in Italy: Santa Maria delle Grazie.

It was designed by Bramante and built in the 15th century, linked to the convent next to it. The outside is in red bricks, with a simple facade but with a very elaborated beautiful dome. The interior is a real example of elegance and simplicity.

It’s very bright, mostly thanks to the white marble and stone that cover most of the surfaces and reflect the light. There are geometric decorations made of red and green marbles. On the left side of the transect there is a door that lead to the cloister, from where you can have a great view of the external part of the dome.

On the opposite side of the cloister there is another door that leads to the sacristy. I think this is one of the most interesting parts of the complex: if it’s open and you can enter. Don’t miss the original furniture with scenes from the bible painted on them!

If you want to see also the “last supper” of Leonardo, remember that you’d better make a reservation long in advance! After the restoration there is a limit on the number of people that can enter every day… so it’s absolutely impossible to enter without making a reservation at least a few weeks before!

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Santa Maria delle Grazie | Art & culture | Free
Piazza di Santa Maria delle Grazie | Centro | +390289421146
Church open daily | Leonardo da Vinci Tue – Sun 08:15 – 19:00

If you’re a lover of opera and of classical music you really shouldn’t miss a concert in this theatre!

It was built by the architect Piermarini in neoclassic style and inaugurated 1778. It has been recently restored and now it’s not only one of the biggest opera house in Europe (it can host around 3000 people), but it’s even one of the best technologically equipped in the world!

The acoustic is renowned to be outstanding from every seat in the hall. You can see performing there all the most well-known names of opera and classical music, and you can be sure that the level of the representation is always at the top!

The prices can vary really a lot. They start from € 5.00 for a concert in a seat in the last raw in the 2nd order gallery (namely on the 6th floor over the stage) to about € 200 for the best place for an opera. You can buy the ticket on the internet or in the ticket office on the left side of the theatre just before the show.

If you want to have a great view of the show (and of the huge hall) without paying too much I would suggest to buy a ticket in the first row of seats of the 1st or 2nd gallery.

Just a little note: when you enter in the main hall and are astonished by the size: the stage is even bigger!

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Teatro Alla Scala | Theaters | Tickets from € 5.00-200.00
Piazza della Scala | Centro | +390288791
Shows usually starts at 20.00

This Art Gallery is definitely a must for all the design-addicted and art lovers! The Triennale Gallery is located in Sempione Park, just beside Castello Sforzesco.

Besides the wonderful location, and the perfect set up of modern pieces of art, what I do really love is having a cup of coffee at the DesignCafè, very white, very design!

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Triennale di Milano | Art & culture, Coffee & tea | Adults € 6.00
Viale Alemagna, 6 | Centro | +392724341
Tues – Sun 10:30 – 20:30

This bar is just a few minutes away from Piazza Duomo but as it is tucked away in a small street you may not find it. Although, I must say I’m always surprised by how many do!

A good place for a post shopping or Scala drink without the exorbitant prices you can find around the Duomo. It’s not a place that gets really busy later in the evening so it’s a great place to enjoy a quiet drink and chat with friends. Although it can get full with the banking crowd from 19:00 – 21:00.

On the weekends it can get a little more interesting with a DJ playing Top 40 music and very strong cocktails. These strong cocktails have seen some people getting a little excited and getting up and dancing on the bar! It generally kicks on till 2am-3am depending on the owner’s mood!

It’s a great place if you want to organize a big group get together such as a birthday.

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Victoria Cafè | Bars, Music | Drink € 6.00
Via Clerici 1 | Centro | +39028053598
18:00 – late daily