Mid-range · 6-hour walk · Milan
Brera and the Navigli in six hours
The city's great picture collection, the artists' quarter, the Last Supper and the canal district at dusk.
Milan gets written off as the place you change trains, largely because visitors do the Duomo in an afternoon and leave. This route is the argument against that: the Brera holds one of the best collections in Italy, the Last Supper is fifteen minutes away on foot, and the Navigli at the end are what is left of a canal network Leonardo himself worked on. Book the Last Supper weeks ahead — it is fifteen minutes, thirty-five people, and it sells out.
The route, stop by stop
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Pinacoteca di Brera
Napoleon founded it with art looted from suppressed churches, which is why it is so strong on altarpieces. Mantegna's foreshortened dead Christ is the one you will remember.
75 min here Walk here → -
Brera district
The academy is still a working art school, which keeps the quarter from going entirely to boutiques. Narrow, cobbled and the only part of central Milan that looks old.
30 min here Walk here → -
Santa Maria delle Grazie
The Last Supper is in the refectory beside the church, on a wall Leonardo painted in a tempera technique that began failing within his lifetime. Timed entry, fifteen minutes, no exceptions.
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Basilica di Sant'Ambrogio
Founded in 379 by the city's patron saint, who is still in the crypt in a silver case. The atrium outside is Romanesque and quieter than anywhere else on this walk.
30 min here Walk here → -
Navigli
The Naviglio Grande dates to the 12th century and carried the marble that built the Duomo. Come at seven for aperitivo, when the price of a drink includes dinner and the whole district is outside.
50 min here Walk here →
More in Milan
Every walking route in Milan, or the full Milan guide for where to stay and what a day costs.