traveldk.com

The Renaissance but with profuse décor; big in the 17th century, then spiralled into over-wrought Rococo in the 18th.

This apprentice of Leonardo was so taken with his master’s talents that he spent his life churning out paintings in the Leonardo style without ever really developing one of his own.

The great architect of the High Renaissance travelled from Urbino to Florence, then Milan and Rome, leaving churches in his wake (and doing a stint as chief architect of St Peter’s in Rome). He favoured geometric designs and smooth walls, with architectural lines picked out in dark stone.

The Baroque master, who influenced an entire generation, used peasant models and a technique of heavy chiaroscuro, playing harsh light off deep black shadows to create dramatic scenes with brilliant realism.

The 14th-century Certosan abbey has largely vanished under Milan’s suburbs, but its church of Santa Maria Assunta survives. It is capped with a fine late Renaissance façade, and the interior was frescoed by Daniele Crespi in 1629 with stories of the Certosan order.

The first of many fun-loving Donizetti premieres.

Milan’s vast mid-19th-century cemetery is most popular for a pantheonic monument housing (among others) the remains of Alessandro Manzoni (see I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed)). The grounds are filled with Art Nouveau tombs of Milan’s top families – a free map shows where such notables as Arturo Toscanini rest in peace. Corners have been set aside for non-Catholic graves, and there’s a monument to Jews deported by the Nazis.

A few pieces in an otherwise modest collection make this a worthwhile stop. The best is the Trivulzio Cup (see Civico Museo Archeologico, Milan). A boulder from the Val Camonica (see Val Calmonica Villages), which is adorned with 4,800-year-old Bronze Age carvings, lies in the entrance court. There’s also a stunning silver platter from the mid-4th century that displays in relief the deities of earth, sky, water and the zodiac – a resounding statement of faith in the old gods at a time of encroaching Christianity. In the 15th-century cloisters, half-demolished by bombs during World War II, are a pair of brick towers from the bastions of the Imperial-era city.

The great travel writer H V Morton (see A Traveller in Italy) likened Milan’s cathedral to a forest within the city, its thickets of columns and high vaulted ceilings providing the citizens with a spot of shade (see Milan’s Duomo).