Milanand Lake Como

Four nights in the city and a day on the lake: the cathedral and its roof, the Last Supper, aperitivo on the canals, the funicular above Como and a boat to Bellagio.

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Italy · 5 days

A white marble cathedral, the Last Supper, the design districts, and the best aperitivo in Italy. Lake Como is an hour out, and people go for the day.

Day by day

Day 1 · 10 placesArrival, and an evening on the canals
MXP → Cadorna: Malpensa Express, 50 min
  • Darsena di Milano
    The old city port, where marble for the cathedral came in by canal. Now it’s a waterfront of bars and boats.
  • Naviglio Grande
    A canal Leonardo had a hand in. Our stop is the busy stretch by Vicolo dei Lavandai: in the evening both banks turn into Milan’s aperitivo.
  • Aeroporto di Milano–Malpensa (MXP)
    This is where you land. The Malpensa Express leaves from under the arrivals hall and runs into the city every half hour.
  • Stazione di Milano Cadorna
    The city station where the airport train arrives. On day four, the train to Lake Como leaves from here too.
  • Colonne di San Lorenzo
    Sixteen Roman columns from the 2nd century, moved here in the 4th. In the evening half of Milan sits on the steps.
  • Basilica di San Lorenzo Maggiore
    A 4th-century church, one of the oldest in Europe: round, with Byzantine mosaics in the Sant’Aquilino chapel.
Day 2 · 11 placesThe castle, the park and the Last Supper
from the castle to Sant’Ambrogio, all in a straight line, 2 miles
  • Duomo di Milano
    The city’s cathedral: 135 spires and marble that came in by canal over five centuries. Inside by ticket, and the line is shorter before ten.
  • Terrazze del Duomo
    The cathedral roof: you walk on marble among the spires, and on a clear day you can see the Alps. The stairs are cheaper, the elevator faster.
  • Santuario di San Bernardino alle Ossa
    A chapel whose walls are lined with human bones from the old cemetery. Five minutes inside and you remember it for the whole trip. Free.
  • Villa Necchi Campiglio
    A 1930s Milanese industrialist’s house with a pool in the courtyard — the one from “I Am Love.” Everything left as it was, down to the china.
  • Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II
    The glass gallery of 1877: mosaics underfoot, cafés under the dome, and the most expensive shopping in Italy.
  • Piazza dei Mercanti
    The medieval market square: a 13th-century loggia, a well, and quiet a minute from the crowd at the Duomo.
Day 3 · 9 placesThe Duomo, the roof and the whole piazza
the whole day within a third of a mile of the cathedral
  • Santa Maria delle Grazie · Il Cenacolo
    Leonardo’s Last Supper, on the refectory wall. Thirty people at a time for fifteen minutes; book a month out.
  • Castello Sforzesco
    The castle of the Sforza dukes. The courtyard is free; inside are museums and Michelangelo’s last, unfinished sculpture.
  • Via Dante
    The pedestrian street from the castle down to the Duomo: tables out on the paving, bookshops, gelato, buskers. This is everyday Milan, not the ten-thousand-euro windows.
  • Civico Museo Archeologico
    Roman Milan inside a former monastery: mosaics, silver, a cut-glass cup. Two towers from the 3rd century still stand in the courtyard — back when the city was called Mediolanum and ran the empire.
  • Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci
    Italy’s largest science and technology museum: models of Leonardo’s machines, a real submarine, steam locomotives. With kids, budget half a day.
  • Triennale Milano
    The museum of Italian design — the reason designers fly to Milan from everywhere. Café with a terrace onto the park.
Day 4 · 11 placesLake Como: train, funicular, boat
Cadorna → Como Lago, 1 hr by train · back from Varenna
  • Funicolare Como–Brunate
    The 1894 funicular climbs 1,600 feet to the village of Brunate in seven minutes: the whole lake and the Alps from the top, with overlooks and cafés along the way.
  • Imbarcadero di Como · Navigazione Laghi
    The pier the lake boats leave from. Buy at the ticket window on the dock: the fast boat to Bellagio takes 45 minutes, the regular one about two hours.
  • Imbarcadero di Bellagio
    The boat docks in the middle of the village: from the gangway you step straight into stair-streets, shops and cafés above the water.
  • Punta Spartivento
    The headland at the tip of Bellagio, where the lake splits in two: Lecco to the right, Como to the left, the Alps ahead. Ten minutes from the pier along the water, free.
  • Passeggiata degli Innamorati
    A boardwalk on pilings along the cliff, right above the water, from the pier to the village. Ten minutes to walk, and photos for the whole vacation.
  • Stazione di Como Lago
    The station where the train from Cadorna arrives. It sits right on the waterfront: the piers are 300 yards away on foot, no transfer needed.
Day 5 · 9 placesBrera, the golden quad, and the flight home
Cadorna → MXP: Malpensa Express, 50 min
  • Pinacoteca di Brera
    Milan’s main picture gallery: Raphael, Mantegna, Caravaggio. Around it, the art academy quarter with studios and bars.
  • Pinacoteca Ambrosiana
    Home to Leonardo’s Codex Atlanticus and Caravaggio’s “Basket of Fruit.” Noticeably fewer people than Brera.
  • Chiesa del Carmine
    Brick Gothic on the square where the Brera quarter begins. Cool inside, and almost always empty.
  • Basilica di San Simpliciano
    One of the four basilicas founded by Saint Ambrose. A quiet colonnaded courtyard off the tourist streets.
  • Bosco Verticale
    Two towers planted with trees — nine hundred of them on the balconies, bare in winter, solid green in summer. You look up at them from Piazza Gae Aulenti, the newest square in the city.
  • Orto Botanico di Brera
    A botanical garden in the academy courtyard, planted in 1774. Even Milanese don’t know about it, and it’s free.
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