HIDDEN GEMS OF MILAN

Piazza Duomo Piazza del Duomo Galleria Vittorio Emanuele Brera district Pinacoteca di Brera

General information

Destination	Duration	Category
Milan, Italy	2 hours	Sightseeing Tours

Program details

Highlights:
• Professional local private guide
• Walk along the medieval commercial streets around Via Torino
• Visit of the Medieval Piazza Mercanti with its ancient hidden statues and monuments and Milan's oldest buildings
• The Church of San Maurizio, known as the Sistine Chapel of Milan

Tour description:
Milan is much more than Duomo, La Scala, Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, Santa Maria delle Grazie featuring Leonardo’s Last Supper or Castello Sforzesco. Try another kind of experience exploring the city off the beaten path, away from the most popular city sights; Milan will reveal fabulous treasures from its twenty centuries history.
Stroll through the medieval commercial district along the commercial streets around Via Torino. You will be surprised at how the old crafts still survive in the name of streets: Via Cappellari (milliners), Via Armorari (armorers) or Via Spadari (sword makers), the street where you will find Peck, perhaps the most reputed Italian Gourmet shop, often referred to as the “Italian Fauchon”, with an incredibly wide range of Italian culinary products. To continue with the culinary treasures, you may want to savour freshly made cream cannoli from the old Panarello pastry shop, or the traditional focaccia at the Princi bakery.
Back to culture and history, just in front of via Spadari, in Via Torino, nearly unnoticeable, you will find the Chiesa San Satiro. An architectural gem, San Satiro was perfected by Bramante in the 15th century, demonstrating his command of proportion and perspective. The solution adopted to create space where there was no space is stunning: he painted amazing trompe-l’œil, architectural optical illusions. Standing at the entrance of the edifice one has impression of a much deeper, extended space behind the altar more than is physically possible.
In Piazza dei Mercanti, once the centre of the city's medieval market, you will admire its porticos, reliefs and loggias still standing from the Middle Ages and some of Milan's oldest buildings: the 13th century Palazzo della Ragione, Loggia degli Osii and the Palace of the Palatine School, Milan’s first university.
You will visit also The Church of San Maurizio with one of the most important fresco cycles from the 16th century, and another magnificent example of Lombard Romanesque style, the 4th century Church of Saint Ambrose, inventor of the calendar and Milanese liturgy, Milan's patron saint.