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The hills and valleys around Lake Maggiore provide the best terrain for saddling up.

Milan’s most important holiday is a biannual fashion trade fair. Even if you’re not here for the fashion shows, MODIT will affect your stay: hotels are booked well in advance. Plan (and pack) accordingly.

Milan celebrates its patron saint with a street fair surrounding Piazza Sant’Ambrogio. The name is said to have come from the delighted squeals of children who, upon beholding such a marvellous fair, once cried in Milanese dialect “Oh, how pretty! Oh, how pretty!”

La Scala is the most important opera house in the world, and if you ever doubted opera was art, a night at its 18th-century home will help you transcend all doubt. The season opens on 7 December – the feast day of Milan’s patron saint, Ambrose – and is a momentous occasion in the Milanese social calendar.

Two years after the Lombard League trounced Barbarossa in 1176 (see 1176: Lombard League Defeats Barbarossa), the town of Legnano began celebrating the victory. Over 800 yeas later they’re still at it, putting on a display of pageantry that ends with a horse race between the town’s eight contrade (districts).

The same breezes that fuel windsurfers are enjoyed by sailors, especially on Lakes Garda, Como and Iseo.

Lake Maggiore’s gateway to the Borromean Islands (see Stresa) hosts five musical weeks of concerts in venues throughout town and up and down the lake shores.

In their northern reaches the lakes are bound by Italian pre-Alps that extend the resorts’ seasons year-round.

The home of Amati and Stradivarius celebrates luthiers and musicians in a series of festivals. An annual exhibition of instruments is accompanied by related contests (see A Violin Concert in Cremona).

Stiff winds at the northern ends of the lakes make for some of the best lake wind-surfing in Western Europe.