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Vittorio de Sica’s 1951 fable of a magical dove that grants wishes to the inhabitants of a Milan slum uses an early version of “special effects”, bridging the popular Neo-Realistic style of Italy’s post-war cinema with the era of magical realism in film-making that Fellini would make famous.

Two Milanese brothers created this Neo-Renaissance palazzo in 1883–94. They acquired as much as they could in the way of tapestries, furnishings and paintings from across Italy, and what they couldn’t obtain in the original they hired an army of Lombard craftsmen to imitate. One room is copied from the ducal palace in Mantova, one from the Urbino’s ducal seat, while another is lifted whole from a palazzo in Sondrio. The overall effect is a glorious mixture of Renaissance craftsmanship and Romantic sensibilities.

This museum houses important works from the treasuries of churches across Milan and Lombardy. In addition to numerous small panels by the 14th- and early 15th-century post-Giotto Gothic schools of central Italy, it preserves 17th-century Flemish tapestries and a number of fine altarpieces. Among these are Hayez’s glowing Crucifixion with Mary Magdalene and Tintoretto’s Christ and the Adulturer .

The National Science and Technology museum knows what draws the crowds, hence its subtitle, “Leonardo da Vinci,” which refers to the wooden scale models of his inventions, which fill the main hall. However, the telecommunications work of Marconi, displays on physics, cinematography, electricity and other scientific marvels don’t get short shrift either (see Museo Nazionale della Scienza e delle Tecnica – Leonardo da Vinci, Milan).

Verdi would become La Scala’s greatest home-grown composer, but he suffered two flops before this hit.

Late 18th to early 19th-century quest for the soul of the ancients; austere in style.

Of Bellini’s three La Scala premieres, the most famous is Norma , a Druid-Roman love triangle that ends badly.

Milan’s 13th-century broletto (town hall) is a striking remnant of the Middle Ages.

Milan’s Neo-Classical Royal Palace was built under the aegis of Empress Maria Theresa in the 18th century and extended in 1939–56 with the Arengario, a pair of towering pavilions on Piazza Duomo. The vast ballroom of the Arengario is open for exhibitions. In other wings are the Museo del Duomo and a contemporary art museum (see Civico Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Milan), with works by Boccioni, Modigliani, Morandi, De Chirico and De Pisis.