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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).

The world’s greatest opera house was built in 1776–8 under the Austrians. It boasts a sumptuous interior, excellent acoustics and a staggering list of premieres (see Top 10 La Scala Premieres). Half destroyed in World War II, La Scala again became the toast of the town in 1946 when conductor Arturo Toscanini presided over its gala reopening. Check website for up-to-date programme listings and booking information.

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.

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.

Art-loving Cardinal Frederico Borromeo gave the city one of its greatest treasures when he bequeathed his private collection of works by Leonardo, Titian, Caravaggio and others, including the original cartoon for Raphael’s famed School of Athens .

Brilliant Renaissance architect Bramante knew the only way to squeeze a Greek cross look into a space that only allowed room for a Latin cross was to concoct a layering of stuccoes, shallow angled niches and frescoes behind the altar to give the optical illusion of a barrel-vaulted presbytery. Another notable feature of this church is a 1483 Pietà group by Lombard sculptor Agostino De’ Fondutis (see Churches).