DK Travel : Milan and the Lakes : Editor's choice

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A Cruise on Lake Como

The loveliest of the Italian lakes (see Lake Como) is best enjoyed from the waters. From this vantage point, devoid of traffic jams, you can see the glorious gardens and gracious villas lining its banks (from the road, all you may see is a high wall).
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 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 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).
An Evening on the Navigli

Milan’s southern district of canals and warehouses has been converted to a lively evening area of restaurants, pizzerias, bars, pubs and funky shops (see I Navigli).
Arco della Pace

Luigi Cagnola built this magnificent triumphal arch in 1807 for Napoleon to pass through when visiting Milan. It didn’t get finished quite in time and was inaugurated instead by a bemused Habsburg emperor.
Armani

Italy’s top fashion guru is the master of smart clothes that, for a price tag with far too many zeroes, can help anyone look like a model.
Art and Antiques

Milan’s art dealers offer a rich collection of lesser-known Byzantine and Baroque works and a plethora of 19th-century oils and other relatively affordable works of art. You’ll find an embarrassment of 18th-century Venetian chairs, country-style hardwood dressers and Empire-style clocks cluttering the antichità shops.
Bardolino

The best-known wine is a light, balanced red from Lake Garda’s Veneto shore.