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 in Milan
Every walking route in Milan, or the full Milan guide for where to stay and what a day costs.