From Malpensa
Two ways into the city: the Malpensa Express, which reaches Cadorna or Centrale in about fifty minutes, and the Terravision coach, which takes about the same. If your flight is late, the ticket still stands.
These are the ones I point guests to. There is a single rule behind the list: either you have to book it weeks ahead, or getting it wrong costs you an afternoon.
None of it is a secret, and none of it needs to be: the things nobody tells you about are on the walk around the corner.
Before you arrive
From Bergamo
Coaches to Milano Centrale leave every half hour and take about an hour.
A private transfer instead
For four people or more, a private car takes you and your luggage from the terminal to the front door, with no changes.
Milan essentials
Leonardo’s Last Supper
Fifteen minutes in front of the painting, and the hardest ticket to come by in the city. Every year there are around one and a half million requests against roughly five hundred thousand places, and the official release sells out within days of opening. This small group tour includes the entrance ticket, which at short notice is in practice the only way in.
The Duomo and its terraces
You go for the roof. You walk among the spires, above the city, and on a clear day the Alps are on the horizon. The ticket is valid for two days and covers the cathedral, the museum and the terraces, by lift or on foot.
Art and neighbourhoods
The Pinacoteca di Brera and the Brera quarter
One of the great Italian collections, Caravaggio and Raffaello among them, and then the streets around it. Entry is included, and with a guide it is not a museum visit: it is an afternoon in Brera.
Milan on foot
Two hours from Porta Garibaldi to Piazza Mercanti, by way of the Duomo, Brera, the Bosco Verticale and the medieval square almost everyone walks past without seeing. If it is your first time in Milan, it is the right morning to start with.
An evening together
Pasta, gnocchi and tiramisù, with a chef
Three hours, no more than ten people, a chef trained in Michelin kitchens, and at the end you sit down and eat what you have made, with wine and a recipe booklet to take home. One of the meeting points is a few minutes from the front door: you walk there and you walk back. The exact address is confirmed when you book.
Painting and wine
Two hours with an artist, all the materials, a glass in your hand and something to eat while you paint. The canvas goes home with you. The studio is on the same street as the cooking class, a few minutes away on foot. Nobody expects you to be able to paint, which is rather the point.
A private chef in the apartment
The chef comes here, cooks in the apartment and clears everything away afterwards. You agree the menu beforehand. For five or six people around one table it is a better evening than any restaurant.
Football
San Siro
The stadium and its museum, with the dressing rooms, the players’ tunnel and the edge of the pitch. Even people who do not follow football come out of it happy.
The rest of the site
This page starts at the front door of an apartment you can book. If sleeping five minutes from the centre of Milan appeals to you, the rest of the site is here.