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Originally the temporary venue for La Scala’s opera and ballet companies it is way out in the industrial suburb of Bicocca – but well worth the trip for performances in a state-of-the-art theatre.

Milan’s Museo Nazionale della Scienza e delle Tecnica has the usual impressive collection of a major science museum – historic cars, TV sets, steam engines, a planetarium and (in the Naval Museum upstairs) thousands of model ships – and it also has Leonardo. The Renaissance genius “invented” (at least on paper) everything from helicopters to labour-saving mechanical devices. Full-scale models help bring his visions to life and may just help pique a youngster’s interest in the whole Renaissance thing (see Museo Nazionale della Scienza e delle Tecnica – Leonardo da Vinci).

The boulevard from La Scala to Porta Nuova preserves many mansions from its 18th and 19th-century heyday: Brentani (No. 6), Anguissola (12), Poldi-Pezzoli (see Museo Poldi-Pezzoli), Gallarati Scotti (30) and Borromeo d’Adda (39–41).

Under Toscanini’s direction, La Scala started opening up to foreign works, including this Stravinsky classic.

Before gaining international fame, Bernardo Bertolucci made this 1969 story of a dysfunctional family haunted by the fascist past. He set this psychological drama in the quirky town of Sabbioneta.

Lombard queen who converted her populace to orthodox Christianity.

Pier Paolo Pasolini’s usual mix of sex, homosexuality and a communist critique on the emptiness of bourgeois life defines this 1968 film. Handsome stranger Terrence Stamp raises the libidos of a middle-class Milanese family, then further stirs up their lives by disappearing.

Friendly place with simple, filling fare from Apulia in southern Italy.

History put Torbole on the map in 1439 (see Lake Garda). Aside from that, the town is known chiefly as a good base for lake sports.