Milan is really a nice city if you like shopping. As many before me have said, you either love it or hate it.
Initially, my friend and I decided to go there for 3 days filled with just shopping. After the whole day of walking around and checking out every shop we got a little bit bored and decided to visit to Verona instead 🙂 Even though we have cut our stay short, there are still some nice things to see and do in Milan.
5 things to do in Milan in one day:
1. Go shopping
It doesn’t matter if you are into cheap brands or the expensive ones. Milan is one big shopping center. Walking from our hotel to the city center we managed to spot the same shop five times 😀 Definitely check out Galerria Vitorrio Emanuele II, that is located in the heart of Milan. First of all, it looks gorgeous inside. If you have at least a little bit of a shopaholic inside you, you cannot miss it! Second of all, inside, there is an image of a bull and if you spin his ball, you will get lucky 😀 Nice tradition, huh 😛
Every street in Milan is filled with stores. So just go around and check them out. There are also many outlets both in Milan and on the outskirts of the city. Check out this website for a full list. We ended up going to Foxtown Factory Store in Switzerland 🙂 It was only an hour train ride from the center and it was really easy to get there.
2. Visit Il Duomo
The Cathedral is the symbol of Milan. It is also one of the biggest Cathedrals in the world. And what is great about it, is that you can get in for free! There is still queue, as there is security check before entering. If you want to see the crypt or a treasury, though, you have to buy a ticket. What is worth mentioning, is that you can climb for 6 Euro (use lift – 10 Euro) to the roof of Duomo and check out the spires up close and see the panorama of the city. If you are lucky you might be able to see something! (They have a lot of problems with smog and you might not see the mountains)
3. See Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper
Visit the Santa Maria delle Grazie church to see the famous painting! The only problem is that you have to order the tickets in advance. The reason for that is that only groups of 25 are allowed in and only for 15 minutes. Unfortunatelly, I didn’t do that so I had to skip on that.
4. Stroll through Sforzesco Castle
Castle was built in the 15th century by Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan, on the remains of a 14th-century fortification. It is really cool place to visit and stroll around. There are some museums inside but I didn’t go in. We only walked around the castle and through the park that is located next to it. It was a perfect break from all of the shoping, especially when sun was shining and you just felt like eating some gelato 🙂
5. Stroll through the streets of Milan
Even though Milan is nothing compared to Rome or Verona, it is still a beautiful city. So just go around and look at all those cute alleys 🙂
Summary
We found a very weird place where they were selling icecreams in a bun 😀 Really weird combination:D
Could I have done more? Sure! There are many different museums and churches to check out. But we really wanted to do some shopping. Especially bacause coming from Scandinavia we couldn’t take more of grey, black and white clothes! We were dying to get some colour in our lives! I am really happy we have cut the visit short and instead went to the outlet in Switzerland and then visited Verona. Not that it did not confuse my family, when they got greetings from all of those places instead from Milan 😀
I would recommend visiting Milan as a part of leyover or just one day at the beginning or ending of the trip, just to check the city out 🙂
