Milan is a huge city with attractions scattered all throughout it. As such, how many days do you realistically need to see a good chunk of the city? Is one or two days enough? Today’s post will cover exactly that. We’ll go over itineraries for one, two and three days respectively for Milan to show how much you can theoretically see in a short amount of time.
Naturally, everyone has different ways and pace of exploring a new place. Some like to rush through it and explore as much as possible while others would rather have time to relax and stay in one area for much longer. As such, we’ll merely point to how much you can theoretically see and you’ll decide whether that’s right for your preferred way of doing things.
Before we start, a few tips, though:
- It’s worth planning in advance about the places you’ll want to visit to book them early, especially if you want to see the Last Supper and the Milan Cathedral. You will save loads of time waiting in queues and there’s really no downside to it
- If you don’t have a lot of time in Milan, we’d also recommend booking a table in advance – restaurants are usually open from 12:00 to 15:00 and then from 19:00 onwards – just keep that in mind
- Public transport in Milan works quite efficiently – we recommend buying tickets on the ATM app on your phone so you don’t have to search for tickets around the city
1 day in Milan
What to see in Milan in one day?
One in Milan is, naturally, nowhere near enough to see everything we would like to – but we can limit ourselves to just the absolute most important places in the centre itself. Some of the more remote locations will unfortunately not be within reach today. What can you see in one day in Milan? We recommend this path:
- Start in the centre, see Duomo Milano
- Climb to the roof (or take a lift) to the roof of the Cathedral
- Walk up to La Scala
- Visit the Vittorio Emanuele II Gallery
- See the Sforza Castle
- See the Last Supper at the Cenacolo Vinciano
Remember that the Last Supper museum, the cathedral and its rooftop all require booking in advance. If you’ll have to wait in queues instead, you might not make it through these absolute essentials, and we’re already cutting it down to the bare minimum here.
2 days in Milan
What to see in two days in Milan?
Two days in Milan gives us a lot more room to breathe, thankfully. The first of the places we can add is the Naviglio district. It’s both a charming part of the city, much less metropolitan, and a great place to visit in the evening, when the whole area gets a lot livelier. We would also add Cimitero Monumentale, a massive cemetery in Milan which is full of artsy tombs. You can also head to Palazzo di Brera and the Pinacoteca di Brera art museum.
Three days in Milan
What can you see in three days?
For three days, we can either add more stuff in the city itself or decide to drive up to one of the nearby towns for half a day, once you get fed up with the crowds in Milan (and we recommend the latter). What would we recommend around Milan? Como (the one with the lake), Bergamo, Lecco, Varenna and Bellagio are all splendid. Personally, we’d choose either a day in Bergamo or a ferry from Varenna to Bellagio. All these towns are connected to Milan by the Trenitalia network and it takes about an hour to get to any.
A week in Milan
What about a week in Milan?
A week in Milan is a proper holiday. We’d say that three days are enough for the centre of Milan and a bit of shopping. The rest of the days can be utilised to visit the wonderful towns and lakes around Milan, like Como, Maggiore and Garda. There’s also a Formula 1 track in Monza and stadiums of AC Milan and Inter clubs for the sports fans among you.
A week is plentiful for a proper experience of Milan and its surrounding area.
How many days do you need for Milan?
What’s right for you?
If you want to see just Milan, we’d say 2-3 days will be enough. That’s not necessarily because there isn’t much more to see in the city, but that you can see the main chunk in that amount of time. And, also, we’d recommend you take Milan in small doses, just because of the whole metropolitanity thing. If you somehow don’t get very tired of the crowds and the noise and all of that quickly, then a week in Milan might be better for you. As the must-sees, we’d propose:
- The Last Supper
- Milan Cathedral
- Monumental Cemetery
- the Vittorio Emanuele II Gallery
- Sforza Castle
We do admit, though, that we were more enchanted by the towns around Milan than the town itself. They’re absolute gems that we hope get as much attention as the city does. If you tend to feel the same with most of the ‘large cities’ and ‘important monuments’, you can always opt to travel around the nearby towns during the day and enjoy the big city vibe in the evening.
See also:
