Travel Tips - Milan, Italy

Possibly Milan’s best known art museum, Brera’s collection is focused on classical works of art by master painters such as Raphael, Bellini, Rembrandt, Goya, Caravaggio, Van Dyck and El Greco. One of the museum’s centerpieces is Andrea Mantegna’s masterpiece The Dead Christ, a beautiful and evocative painting of Christ removed from the cross.

The museum, which opened at the beginning of the 19th century, is made up of 38 rooms. Although that may sound quite large, the museum is actually a very manageable size and can easily be seen in its entirety in a couple of hours.

The Pinacoteca di Brera is open Tuesday to Sunday from 8:30AM to 7:15PM. Entrance costs 10 Euros. Audio tours are available for an additional 3.50 Euros.

Piazza alla Scala, which sits at the head of the plaza and is named after the world’s most important opera house is connected to the Piazza Duomo by the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. Although significantly smaller than the Piazza Duomo, it is a much more comfortable and quite place rest your feet, people watch and bask in the sun.
At the center of the piazza sits a statue dedicated to Leonardo da Vinci surrounded by a grassy area with trees and several benches. Also located in the piazza is the 16th century Marino Palace, considered the city’s most beautiful palace and currently the home of Milan’s City Hall, and the Palace of the Commercial Bank of Italy.

The Piazza del Duomo is the heart of historic Milan, the capital of the Italian region of Lombardy, and its principal square. The piazza’s centerpiece is the gorgeous cathedral for which it is named, a massive edifice made entirely of white marble.
The duomo is flanked by the Palazzo Reale, which houses the Duomo and Contemporary Art Museums, and the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, an upscale shopping mall that connects the Piazza Duomo with the Piazza alla Scala. At the southwest corner of the piazza, tourists can visit the Basilica of Sant Ambrogio.

The piazza is always crowded with tourists and Milanese alike, although it’s a great place to take photographs and feed the pigeons, there aren’t enough places to sit and too much hustle and bustle to relax and people watch. The Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Brera Art Museum, La Scala opera house and Ambrosiana Library and Picture Gallery are all a stone’s throw away. Plus the small winding streets that lead in and out of the piazza also lead to excellent gourmet shops, small boutiques and fabulous eateries.

Construction on this unique church began during the gothic period and was completed during the Renaissance, but it’s not so much the building’s beautifully crafted architecture that draws tourists by the thousands, as what’s inside Santa Maria delle Grazie’s Cenacolo Viciano. It is in this dining hall that Leonardo Da Vinci’s infamous fresco, The Last Supper, was painted in 1494. Thanks to its last restoration, which took 20 years to complete, the painting is in wonderful condition and truly awe-inspiring. But this awing experience doesn’t come cheap or easy. Only a limited amount of visitors are allowed in to view the fresco each day, so you should book your visit a minimum of two weeks in advance (minimum of a month in the summer).

The pleasure of seeing the work that spawned Dan Brown’s best-selling novel The Da Vinci Code will cost you 8 Euros, although visiting the rest of the church is free.