The Quadrilatero della Moda

The Quadrilatero della Moda (Fashion Quadrilateral) is one of the world’s most famous luxury shopping areas with boutiques, ateliers and showrooms of the most important Italian and international fashion brands. A real ‘square’ formed by four streets: via Monte Napoleone, via Della Spiga, via Manzoni and Corso Venezia. There are also via Borgospesso, via Santo Spirito, via Gesù, via Sant’Andrea and via Bagutta, equally luxurious and well-kept, but a little less emblazoned and famous.

People from all over the world visit the Quadrilatero della Moda, either to shop or to admire the shop windows. According to the Main streets across the world index, Via Monte Napoleone is one of the most expensive and prestigious streets in the world.

In the area there are also:

• the Bagatti Valsecchi Museum, an interesting house-museum containing the collection of paintings and art artefacts from the 15th and 16th centuries collected by the Bagatti Valsecchi brothers (Via Gesù 5, full admission €15, concessions available, closed Mondays and Tuesdays, Wednesday open from 1 to 8 p.m., Thursday and Friday from 1 to 5.45 p.m., Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5.45 p.m.)
• Palazzo Morando, which houses the Costume, Fashion and Image Museum (Via S. Andrea 6, free entrance, open Tuesday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5.30 p.m., last entrance at 5 p.m.).

Poldi Pezzoli Museum

Via Alessandro Manzoni, 12, 20121 Milan

Regular price ticket costs 10 euro, reduced price ticket 7 euro, school ticket 3 euro.

Every day from 10 am to 6 pm. The museum is closed on Tuesdays, New Year’s Eve, Easter, 25 April, 1 May, 15 August, 1 November, 8 December and Christmas. Last admission is at 5.30 p.m. Included in the Abbonamento Musei Lombardia.

You can book your tickets here.

The Poldi Pezzoli Museum is part of the ‘Case Museo di Milano’ and houses the works of art donated by the Milanese collector Gian Giacomo Poldi Pezzoli (1822-1879). It is located in the centre of Milan, near La Scala Theatre.

The museum contains the works of important artists including Perugino, Piero della Francesca, Sandro Botticelli, Antonio Pollaiolo, Giovanni Bellini, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Pinturicchio, Filippo Lippi, Andrea Mantegna, Jacopo Palma il Vecchio, Francesco Hayez, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Jusepe de Ribera, Canaletto, Lucas Cranach il Vecchio and Luca Giordano.

The Poldi Pezzoli Museum is divided into two floors and over the years the number of works has increased thanks to numerous donations ranging from embroidery to watchmaking to painting.

Among the most important donations are Bruno Falk’s collection of mechanical clocks (1973) and Piero Portaluppi’s collection of sundials (donated by his daughter Luisa, 1978); in 1998, thanks to Arnaldo Pomodoro, an armoury room was set up. Since 1968, a workshop for the restoration of antique weapons and armour has also been set up in the museum.

A stroll along Corso Venezia

Corso Venezia is a beautiful, albeit busy, street. As you stroll along, you will come across various mansions and palaces, ranging from the 1400s to the 1900s.

Nearby, at 14 Via Mozart, is Villa Necchi Campiglio, managed by the FAI Fondo Ambiente Italiano, which houses several works of art. Admission costs 12 euros, but there are reductions: students up to 26 years of age pay 5 euros.

It is open Wednesday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., with last admission at 5.15 p.m. It is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.

Villa Necchi Campiglio is the house owned by the Necchi sisters, the owners of the company that produces the famous Necchi sewing machines. The Villa is managed by the FAI and houses masterpieces by Canaletto, De Chirico and many other artists. Villa Necchi Campiglio was designed between 1932 and 1935 by architect Piero Portaluppi on behalf of sisters Gigina and Nedda Necchi and Gigina’s husband, Angelo Campiglio.

In the years when families were building mansions, they chose to create a single-family villa surrounded by greenery, a wonderful house with every comfort: lift, dumbwaiter, heated swimming pool (the first private pool in Milan), tennis courts, gym and screening room.

During the war, the villa was requisitioned and became the headquarters of Alessandro Pavolini of the Republic of Salò.

When they returned to their home, the Necchi Campiglio family felt the need to make it more welcoming and turned to the architect Tomaso Buzzi, who added marble, fireplaces and special, elegant furniture. Angelo Campiglio and Gigina Necchi, together with their sister Nedda, have always lived in their villa.

Upon Campiglio’s death, the two Necchi sisters decided to leave their house to FAI (the foundation of their great friend Alberto Veronesi), the handover came in 2001 with the death of the last surviving sister, Gigina.

FAI took care of the Necchi Campiglio heritage and enriched the villa with the art collections of Claudia Gian Ferrari and Alighiero dé Micheli, who embellished the walls of the villa with the works of important painters such as De Chirico, Canaletto, Sironi, Tiepolo and Martini.

GAM Galleria di Arte Moderna (Gallery of Modern Art)

Via Palestro 16. Open Tuesday to Sunday from 9am to 5.30pm, last admission at 4.30pm. Full price entry costs 5 euro, reduced price entry 3 euro (valid for under 25, over 65, students). Free admission for minors and high school students. Other reductions are available. You can book your tickets here

Contains a collection of 19th and 20th century works by artists such as Francesco Hayez, Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo, Antonio Canova, Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, Édouard Manet, Paul Gauguin, Pablo Picasso, Amedeo Modigliani

Etruscan Museum Luigi Rovati Foundation

Corso Venezia 51. Open Wednesday to Sunday from 10am to 8pm (last entrance is at 7pm). Admission costs €16, €12 for over-65s and students (with ID) under 26. Reduced price €8 for visitors aged between 11 and 18. Other reductions are available.

Free admission on the first Sunday of every month. This museum is not included in the Abbonamento Musei Lombardia.

Opened in 2022, the Etruscan Museum of the Luigi Rovati Foundation houses a collection of 200 pieces including art and objects from the Etruscan civilisation, which developed in central Italy before the rise of Rome, with a very modern layout also from an architectural point of view.

The experience is complemented by several modern and contemporary works in the exhibition space and some temporary exhibitions, which are included in the entrance fee.

In the Pavilion in the garden there are free temporary exhibitions that can be visited.

Natural History Museum

The Natural History Museum, Corso Venezia 55, is not of particular interest to tourists, but the building that houses it is worth a look from the outside.

Porta Venezia

At the end of Corso Venezia is the imposing Porta Venezia, one of the gates that opened onto the Spanish walls of Milan. It was rebuilt in neoclassical style in the first half of the 19th century.

The Art Nouveau houses of Via Malpighi

A few steps from the gate is Via Malpighi, a short street with two Art Nouveau houses. They cannot be visited, but it is possible to observe their exterior façade.

At Via Malpighi 3 is Casa Galimberti, while at Via Malpighi 12 is Casa Guazzoni. There are many other Art Nouveau buildings in Milan.

A stroll along Corso Buenos Aires

On the other hand, Corso Buenos Aires, historically one of Milan’s shopping streets, starts at Porta Venezia: 1.2 kilometres long and more than 350 shops of all kinds, from fast fashion to ice cream parlours.

The street was created at the behest of Emperor Joseph II of Austria and officially came into being in 1782; the original name was Corso Loreto, due to the proximity of the shrine dedicated to Santa Maria di Loreto.

In 1906, on the occasion of the first Universal Exhibition, a name change was decreed to give an international flavour to the city and to pay homage to the first two countries that joined the event, which were Argentina and Peru, hence the birth of Piazza Lima and Piazza Argentina.

There are a few buildings worth noting and observing as you stroll along the street.

Palazzo Luraschi, Corso Buenos Aires 1, dating back to 1887, decorated with some columns from the former Lazzaretto di Milano and with medallions and busts inspired by the novel ‘I promessi sposi’ (The Betrothed). It was restored in 2016.

At Corso Buenos Aires 19 a beautiful neoclassical building from the late 1700s.

At Corso Buenos Aires 33 stands the Teatro Elfo Puccini, inaugurated in 1902 and restored in 2010, which is now the current home of the Compagnia dell’Elfo.

Palazzo Argentina (Corso Buenos Aires 36) designed by Piero Bottoni, is a classic example of Italian architecture from the second half of the 20th century. It was in fact built in 1946, immediately after the Second World War.

The Casa Centenara (Corso Buenos Aires 66) is an Art Nouveau building built in 1907 by architect Giovan Battista Bossi.

At Corso Buenos Aires 75, on the other hand, a 1920s building in deco style stands out, housing shops and offices.

Boschi di Stefano House Museum

Via Giorgio Jan 15. Open Tuesday to Sunday, 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. Free visit.

A few steps from Corso Buenos Aires, the Casa Museo Boschi di Stefano houses a collection of 20th-century Italian art in an Art Deco flat, donated to the City of Milan in 1974.

The Boschi di Stefano House Museum was inaugurated on 5 February 2003 in the house once inhabited by Antonio Boschi (1896-1988) and Marieda Di Stefano (1901-1968).

Around 300 of the more than 2,000 works in their private collection can be admired.

The collection is a cross-section of 20th century Italian art history and includes paintings, sculptures and drawings made between the first decade of the 20th century and the end of the 1960s.

Museum of Illusions

Via Settembrini 11. Open Monday to Thursday from 10 a.m. to 8.30 p.m., Friday to Sunday until 9 p.m. Last admission 30 minutes before closing. Online booking required at weekends. Full price ticket 18 euro, concessions 15 euro and 12 euro.

A few minutes’ walk from Corso Buenos Aires, at 11 Via Settembrini, is the Museo delle Illusioni, which opened a few years ago. It is an experiential exhibition space for playing with optical and perceptual illusions. Particularly suitable for children and young people, but also for those looking for an opportunity to take Instagrammable photographs.