Budget · 3-hour walk · Milan
The Duomo and the castle in three hours
The cathedral roof, the glass arcade, the opera house and the Sforza fortress at the end.
Milan's centre is a small medieval knot inside a modern city, and the four things worth walking between are in a straight line about a kilometre long. The cathedral roof terraces are the one thing here that nothing else in Italy matches; take the stairs rather than the lift and you pay less and wait less.
The route, stop by stop
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Duomo di Milano
The roof terraces are a separate ticket and the reason to come. You walk among the spires, not under them.
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Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II
An iron-and-glass cross from 1877 joining the cathedral to the opera house. Spinning on the bull mosaic's anatomy is the local superstition.
20 min here Walk here → -
Teatro alla Scala
The museum is open most days and includes a look into a box. Tickets for performances go on sale two months ahead.
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Sforza Castle
The courtyards are free. Inside is Michelangelo's unfinished last Pieta, worked on days before he died.
More walks in Milan
Pinacoteca di Brera · Brera district · Santa Maria delle Grazie · Basilica di Sant'Ambrogio · Navigli
Duomo di Milano · Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II · Teatro alla Scala · The Last Supper · Sforza Castle · Brera district · Pinacoteca di Brera · Porta Nuova · Navigli
More in Milan
Every walking route in Milan, the full Milan guide for where to stay and what a day costs, or walks in other cities.