Milan and the Lakes: Lake Como and Lake Maggiore

By Enrico Massetti

New feature! This e-guide includes active links to restaurant reviews, tourist resources, recipes, and salami webpages. Use it on your smartphone or desktop.

Googling the right information for your trip is frustrating: there is too much, too many websites are there! Which one is the most appropriate? I selected the right site that applies to my guide, and I include them here for you. In the digital editions, if you have an active internet connection, the links are active.

A guide to Milan, for a visit lasting two, three, or more days. It also covers the two lakes near Milan: Lake Como and Lake Maggiore.

In Lake Como, the towns of Como, Bellagio, Menaggio, and Varenna, in addition to the one-day trips you can make from one of these towns to Piona, Villa Carlotta and Villa del Balbianello.

In Lake Maggiore, the town of Stresa in addition to the one-day trips you can make from one of these towns to the Borromean Islands, the Angera castle, Locarno, Mottarone, Villa Taranto and the Centovalli railway.

There are extensive descriptions and photos of the attractions: museums, churches, nightlife, and other attractions.

A chapter on food and recipes from Lombardy is included, with links, active in the digital versions, to the relevant entries in an Italian recipe database.

There are descriptions to get to Milan, on driving and parking in the city, useful info to stay there.

There are reviews of several restaurants.

The guide, presented into sections covering single days or half days, allows you to combine several sections depending on the length of your stay and your preference of what to see.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Enrico Massetti
• Release date: Sep 10, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310023163

Enrico Massetti

Enrico Massetti nació en Milán, Italia, donde vivió durante más de 30 años, visitando innumerables destinos turísticos, desde las montañas de los Alpes hasta el mar de Sicilia. Ahora vive en Washington, Estados Unidos. Sin embargo, visita regularmente su ciudad natal y disfruta recorriendo todos los lugares de su país, especialmente aquellos a los que puede llegar en transporte público. Puede contactar con Enrico en [e-mail].

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Milan on foot

Via Dante

Taking a stroll around Milan is an excellent way of getting to know some fascinating corners. It is also the only way to get acquainted with its flavor and life style. It is true what is told about the Milanese who are always in a hurry. However, even if nobody could deny Milan is a very active city, its citizens have learned when to stop and how to enjoy a walk in the city center pedestrian areas while having an aperitif and a good chat with some good friends.

The city center pedestrian areas.

Castello Sforzesco

Corso Vittorio Emanuele is a pedestrian precinct with the two main cinemas, bookshops, fashion shops and bars with open-air tables.

Piazza San Babila – Start of the pedestrian precinct, a square surrounded by post-war architecture with many fashionable shops.

Via Della Spiga – pedestrian street where the great stylists have their showrooms

Brera is one of the most attractive areas with fine private houses, art galleries, original shops, most popular for its bars, clubs, restaurants and night-life.

Loggia dei Mercanti – via Mercanti

Via Mercanti – pedestrian precinct with its attractive piazzetta, the administrative and political center of Medieval Milan

Via Dante created in the late 19th century to provide an evocative link between the Duomo (cathedral) and the Castle (Castello Sforzesco)

A recommended itinerary

Start from Piazza San Babila, easily reachable with the metropolitana underground line 1, station San Babila. You walk in Corso Vittorio Emanuele, a fashionable street with lots of high end shops, mainly clothing. Before the end of the Corso, turn right in via Cesare Beccaria to see the Piazzetta del Liberty, with a Liberty style palace and the Nespresso Store and Apple Store, then return to the Corso.

The roof of the Duomo

At the end of Corso Vittorio Emanuele you arrive to the back of the Duomo.

A visit to the roof of the Duomo is a must. Take the elevator in the back of the Duomo, if you don’t want to gasp on an interminable stair! From the rooftop you are in a magic world of marble and statues, several thousand statues, indeed. Go to the front of the roof and look down at the Duomo square. Look also up to the Madonnina the golden statue on top of the highest guglia, it’s the most loved symbol of Milan. During World War II it was covered so that it would not shine in the night attracting the attention of the allied bombers.

The Duomo from La Rinascente Cafe

After getting down from the roof, do not miss a visit to the cafeteria of the La Rinascente store under the porticos on your right. You find it by going up to the last floor of the store, the cafeteria has a glass wall facing the top of the Duomo. The sight is unique and the Cappuccino is worth a visit too, even if eating there is quite expensive.

Continuing North, you reach the main square Piazza Duomo, in front of Il Duomo. You should visit the cathedral.

Il Duomo

Duomo di Milano

The Duomo, which traditionally symbolizes the city of Milan, is the most extraordinary example of Italian late Gothic art. It ranks third in terms of dimension after the Saint Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican in Rome and Seville’s Cathedral. Located in the very heart of the city, the Duomo di Milano represents both the core of the city and the unavoidable destination of countless visitors from Italy and abroad.

Mark Twain a great fan of the Duomo di Milano, can take over the description (from Innocents Abroad) from here:

What a wonder it is! So grand, so solemn, so vast! And yet so delicate, so airy, so graceful! A very world of solid weight, and yet it seems …a delusion of frostwork that might vanish with a breath!

Stained Glass Windows

The Duomo has five great doors, the central one of them is bordered with a bas-relief of birds and fruits and beasts and insects, which have been so ingeniously carved out of the marble that they seem like living creatures– and the figures are so numerous and the design so complex, that one might study it a week without exhausting its interest…everywhere that a niche or a perch can be found about the enormous building, from summit to base, there is a marble statue, and every statue is a study in itself…

Away above, on the lofty roof, rank on rank of carved and fretted spires spring high in the air, and through their rich tracery one sees the sky beyond. …(Up on) the roof…springing from its broad marble flagstones, were the long files of spires, looking very tall close at hand, but diminishing in the distance…We could see, now, that the statue on the top of each was the size of a large man, though they all looked like dolls from the street…

They say that the Cathedral of Milan is second only to St. Peter’s at Rome. I cannot understand how it can be second to anything made by human hands.

Duomo – Interior

The construction of the Duomo di Milano began in 1386 promoted by Gian Galeazzo Visconti, lord of Milan, and continued for centuries.

The Duomo di Milano is entirely covered from its base with pinkish-white marble. In the façade five large portals are inserted carrying high-reliefs illustrating sacred and historical scenes such as The life of Sant’Ambrogio. Wide slabs of marble make up the roof of the Duomo which can be reached by a steep external staircase, consisting of 919 steps, carved between the left side and the transept.

From the Duomo roof

The effort of climbing the Duomo is highly rewarded by the magnificent view of the surrounding plain up to the Alps; should the weather be ungenerous it will still be possible to enjoy the vision of the Madonnina , the golden statue of the Virgin Mary, the 135 lace-like spires and the many statues which decorate the roof.

On entering the majestic interior of the cross-shaped cathedral of the Duomo di Milano, the sight is captured by the polychrome stained glass windows depicting scenes from the life of the saints. The eight naves of the Duomo Cathedral are divided by 52 gigantic pillars topped by a series of niches with statues.

You have to pay to enter inside the Duomo. You do not need advance reservation, as the capacity of the Duomo is great. Lines are only present during the most frequented tourist seasons.

Duomo di Milano official site: www.duomomilano.it - you can buy tickets here.

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II

On the right you then enter the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, the first mall realized in the 19th century, and still a masterwork of artistic shopping.

On the side of the central octagonal don’t miss the bull, there is a tradition in Milan: squeezing your feet on the bull’s balls is supposed to bring you good luck!

The inside of the museum Gallerie d'Italia.

At the end of the Galleria there is Piazza Scala, with the La Scala famous opera theater.

In the right corner of the Piazza, at the end of the long grey building, there is the entrance of the museum of '800 and '900 art Gallerie d'Italia. Entrance is 10-15 euro but he museum is closed on Mondays. The Restaurant Voce Aimo e Nadia  of the museum is always open and is a very nice and inexpensive place where you can rest.

Returning back to piazza Duomo, visit the Piazzetta Reale, on the opposite side of the square: the Palazzo Reale it's the place where most exhibitions of art are held in Milan.

La Scala Theater

La Scala Theater

The Teatro alla Scala without a doubt one of the most famous opera houses in the world, was founded by the support of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria to replace its predecessor, the Regio Teatro Ducale, built in 1589, which was destroyed by flames in 1776 but up until that time the home of opera in Milan. Designed and built by the great neoclassical architect Giuseppe Piermarini between 1776 and 1778, it was opened in August of the same year with an opera by Antonio Salieri.

The period between the two wars witnessed a succession of appearances at the Scala by the great artists of the time and in 1943 La Scala was severely damaged by bombardments.

It was reopened again on 11 May 1946, with a historic concert conducted by Toscanini and the theatre rapidly returned to its previous level of fine production and art.

Piazza Scala

The opera house takes its name from the antique church of Santa Maria della Scala whose original site was found here. This theater is deemed to be one of the most perfect theaters in the world.

It holds a total of 2,200 people including 678 orchestra seats, 409 seats in the first and second galleries, and 155 boxes dispersed on four levels.

Circled by greenery in Piazza Scala, a monument to Leonardo da Vinci provides the perfect backdrop for La Scala’s neoclassical architecture. Its history, acoustic and the outstanding level of its performances have made La Scala Theatre one of the best known temples of lyric and classical music in the world. The theatre was founded under the auspices of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria to replace the Royal Ducal Theatre, destroyed by fire in 1776.

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