Milan

Fixed points around the Duomo for a short Milan stay

This is a city that hides its best things behind grey façades and courtyard doors, so a short stay needs a few fixed points. Everything radiates from the Duomo, which sits at the centre of rings of boulevards built where the old walls and canals once ran.

• Day one: climb to the cathedral roof and walk among the spires. Pass through the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II to La Scala, then head north into Brera for the Pinacoteca. End the day with an aperitivo beside the Navigli canals.
• Day two: use your timed slot for Leonardo's Last Supper at Santa Maria delle Grazie. The Basilica di Sant'Ambrogio is a short walk away; some of the city's churches are older than Rome's, because Milan was a capital of the late Roman Empire. Spend the afternoon at the Castello Sforzesco and in Parco Sempione behind it.
• Day three: take a train out. Como is 40 minutes from Centrale or 50 from Cadorna. Monza is 15 minutes away; Lake Garda takes 65 to 85 minutes. Bergamo also has regular trains, from Centrale as well as Porta Garibaldi.

The Last Supper is the one booking that cannot wait. Tickets are released in batches and go weeks or even months ahead, so reserve as soon as your dates are firm. Most museums close on Mondays; plan that day around churches, the Duomo and the shops of the Quadrilatero della Moda.

Fashion and design weeks fill the city and push room rates up sharply. If your trip overlaps one, book a hotel early and choose one near a metro station.

If you arrive by car, save money by staying at a hotel further out near a metro stop and leave the car there.

Still air in Milan, with muggy summers and winter smog

Mountains wall the city in on three sides, which makes it one of the least windy cities in Europe. That calm explains both seasons people complain about: muggy summer nights and winter smog trapped under temperature inversions. Snow falls on about seven days a year.

Winter is cold and grey. The rainiest stretch is November (some 112 mm, often with fog). Summer runs the other way. July averages 31°C and peaks can pass 35°C; storms often bring hail. Mid-August is eerily quiet, because many shops close for the Ferragosto holiday on 15 August, and plenty of restaurants follow.

Spring and autumn are the comfortable windows, mostly between 10°C and 20°C. Pack an umbrella in April and May, the rainier half of spring.

The calendar matters more than the weather when you book. Fashion Week comes twice: late winter and early autumn. The Salone del Mobile furniture fair takes over the Rho fairgrounds every April, while more than 1100 Fuorisalone events spill across town. On 7 December, the feast of Sant'Ambrogio, the city takes a holiday. La Scala opens its opera season that night. The old Sant'Ambrogio Christmas fair sets up around the Castello Sforzesco and stays until the following Sunday. On 6 January the Corteo dei Re Magi procession winds through the centre.

Risotto alla milanese, ossobuco and Lombardy's butter-and-rice cooking

Lombard cooking swaps pasta for rice and olive oil for butter; tomato and fish barely feature. The signature is risotto alla milanese: saffron gives the colour, beef marrow the richness. It often shares a plate with ossobuco, braised veal shank topped with gremolata. The cotoletta alla milanese is a breaded veal cutlet fried in butter. In winter look for cassoeula (pork ribs with sausage, stewed with Savoy cabbage) or busecca, tripe with beans. Leftover meat becomes mondeghili, fried meatballs.

Bakeries follow the calendar. Carnival brings chiacchiere and tortelli; Easter brings the dove-shaped colomba; early November means pane dei morti; Christmas means panettone. Cheese counters stock gorgonzola, taleggio and mascarpone.

Meals run a little earlier than in Rome. Lunch is served between 12:30 and 14:30 and dinner between 19:30 and 21:30. Before dinner comes the aperitivo, roughly 19:00 to 21:00, when a drink such as a Campari soda arrives with snacks. Brera and the Navigli are the classic places for it. For a quick bite near the cathedral, Luini sells southern-style dough pockets filled with mozzarella and tomato. Good pizza clusters near Via Marghera and on the Navigli. Skip the restaurants facing the Duomo or around Centrale, where quality is low and cover charges high.

History is still on the menu. Caffè Cova has served coffee since 1817, and the Antica Trattoria Bagutto traces its records back to 1284. Breakfast is a cappuccino and brioche at the bar counter. Tips are not expected at table and never at the bar. English is widely spoken; the old Milanese dialect is fading.