DK Travel : Milan and the Lakes

Milan is Italy’s economic powerhouse, a bustling city of finance and industry, media empires and fashion houses, backed up by an impressive cultural heritage of important art galleries and ancient churches. Yet a 40-minute train ride takes you to the azure pools of “the lakes”, lined with fishing villages, villas and laid-back resorts.

A Day in Central Milan

Morning

Start at 10am amid the stupendous collections of Pinacoteca Ambrosiana.

Work your way south to Via Torino and the jewelbox of a church, Santa Maria presso San Satiro , then walk north up Via Torino until you reach the Piazza del Duomo, Milan’s vast public living room.

Continue along the piazza’s western edge and divert up Via Mercanti to see the raised porticoes of Palazzo della Ragione. Now cross the huge Duomo square to enjoy the marvels of Italy’s second-largest cathedral (see Milan’s Duomo). Don’t miss exploring its roof.

Take a platter of cheese and meats in Zucca (see Zucca in Galleria (Caffè Miani)) at the entrance to Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, the grandest shopping arcade in Italy.

Afternoon

Exit the arcade at Piazza della Scala, flanked by the famed opera house and Palazzo Marino . Behind the latter is the church of San Fedele. After seeing this walk northeast past the surreal Casa degli Omenoni .

Turn left to visit the excellent Museo Poldi-Pezzoli, then continue north on Via Manzoni, admiring its palazzi and Armani boutique, until you come to Milan’s prime shopping street, Via Montenapoleone .

Shoppers will spend the rest of the day here; museum hounds can take in the Museo Bagatti Valsecchi. Both should stop for drinks at Cova .
A Day on Lake Maggiore

Morning

Be at the Stresa ferry dock by 10am and buy a day pass for island hopping as well as admission tickets for the Isole Borromee sights.

Ride to Isola Bella first to spend two hours exploring the collections of the Borromeo Palace and the intricate gardens above it. Then catch the 12:25pm ferry for the short hop to the Isola Superiore, where you can settle into a lakeside table on Verbano’s terrace for lunch with a view (book ahead of time (see Verbano, Isola Superiore (Isola dei Pescatori)).

Mid-Afternoon

Wander the tourist/fishing village after lunch before continuing on the boat to Isola Madre.

The Borromeo Villa on Madre takes only a half hour to wander, but the vast botanical gardens surrounding it are a delight, thick with exotic flora and populated by colourful exotic birds. The multi-lingual map handed out explains many of the rare specimens and is remarkably informative too.

Try to catch a return ferry that stops on the mainland at Lido/Funivia for Montarrone – one stop before Stresa proper. Get off here and stroll along the little-used waterfront promenade for the final 20-minute walk back to downtown Stresa. You will be rewarded with a lovely late-afternoon view of the islands on your left, and romantically crumbling, abandoned villas on your right.
A Day with Leonardo

Morning

To spend time with the great Renaissance genius you must transgress the division between north and south Milan.

Begin the day’s itinerary at the Cordusio metro stop, then walk west on Via Meravigli three blocks to the corner with Via S Maria alla Porta for a cappuccino at Pasticceria Marchesi. Continue west, and pop into the Museo Archeologico (see Civico Museo Archeologico) for 20 minutes of historical musing.

Make reservations long in advance for a 10am admission to the Last Supper (see Santa Maria delle Grazie). Take time to fully appreciate Leonardo’s art.

Go east along Corso Magenta to Via Carducci to relax at the Art Nouveau Bar Magenta and enjoy an early lunch.

Afternoon/Evening

Turn down Via Carducci four long blocks to Via San Vittore (you’ll see across the street the Pusterla di S Ambrogio, a remnant of the medieval city gates) and turn right for the Museo della Scienza (see Museo Nazionale della Scienza e delle Tecnica – Leonardo da Vinci).

At around 3:30pm double back along Via S Vittore to S Ambrogio. Trek down Via Edmondo De Amicis to Corso della Porta Ticinese, where your first stop is the magnificent San Lorenzo Maggiore . Peruse the works in the Museo Diocesano, then continue to Sant’Eustorgio.

A block south brings you into the bar and restaurant zone of the Navigli, ready for a post-itinerary drink and a superb meal (see Shops and Nightspots in Southern Milan, Places to Eat in Southern Milan).
A Farewell to Arms

Ernest Hemingway’s World War I novel (written in 1929) tells the story of an American soldier wounded while fighting for the Italian army. He convalesces in a Milan hospital, and, after inadvertently deserting while escaping the Germans, reunites with his love in Stresa on Lake Maggiore. They stay at the Des Iles Borromées hotel (where Hemingway himself often stayed) before fleeing by boat across to Swiss Locarno.
A Milanese Shopping Spree

Milan is a world capital of high fashion, home to dozens of the top names in haute couture (see Things to Buy) in its Quadrilatero d’Oro, or “Golden Rectangle” of streets (see Milan’s Markets). Add in designer household objects, silk from Como, fine wines and foods, and Milan becomes a shopper’s paradise.
A Month by the Lake

It’s 1937, and a group of stodgy society Brits and bored Yanks loosen their mores and inhibitions on the shores of Lake Como. Vanessa Redgrave and Uma Thurman head up the cast of this 1995 film by John Irvin. You can visit its setting, the Villa Balbianello, Lake Como.
A Night at the Opera

Italy’s premier opera house, La Scala, has now emerged from extensive restoration, and you can again enjoy one of the world’s best companies in a truly wondrous 18th-century setting.
A Round of Golf

The golf at Garda isn’t great, but if you want to break out the nine-iron, there are several courses on the southwest shore and one on the east shore.
A Traveller in Italy

H V Morton, who in his youth gained fame scooping the story of Tutankhamun’s tomb discovery in the 1920s, became one of the 20th-century’s best, if little-known, travel writers. His 1950s journey through Italy is an erudite combination of travelogue, history and wonderful prose, all of it surprisingly undated.
A Violin Concert in Cremona

In the city where Amati honed his craft and passed his skills to Stradivari, they take their fiddling seriously. Virtuosos from around the globe come to numerous festivals, concert seasons and trade fairs just for the chance to bow a few sonatas on the city’s vast collection of original Strads (see Cremona).