Milan

Italy

Things to do in Milan:

View the Gallery Square

Milan Restaurants

Cheap (54)

Solo Pizza

This busy pizzeria serves up the genuine thick-crust Neapolitan article as well as a range of other traditional dishes. Great value at around �10 for a pizza plus a drink. read more
Affordable (47)

Osteria della Lanterna

This central eatery offers quality and value, while the menu, which includes pasta, gnocchi and meat dishes, mixes genuine homemade cookery from the Lombardia and Friuli regions. Great value at... read more
Good quality (75)

Cocopazzo

The Tuscan specialities at this welcoming trattoria include steaks, grilled meats and fish dishes. The prices are low for a central location and service is swift. read more

Milan Nightlife

Chilled (53)

Spazio Fitzcarraldo

This vaulted basement nightspot full of huge sofas and a central bar looks just like a film set; it's a great place to kick off the evening or you can stay longer to hear what the DJ has up his... read more
Live Music (34)

Alla Vecchia Latteria

This small, vegetarian-only venue dates from 1885 and nestles in a side street close to the Duomo. It opens Tuesdays and Thursdays for evening happy hours (all you can eat for��9)�and features... read more
Clubbing (76)

Shu

Shu is a popular discobar with unusual decor open daily offering cocktails and food at happy hour. Later, DJs, musicians and other entertainers take over until late. Free entry but drinks are �10 a... read more

This Month in Milan:

By Charles Searson

Shopping: Treat yourself to some of the excellent pastries and cakes at Pasticceria Castelnuovo. A slice of an age-old tradition, these delicacies regularly get rave reviews and have won awards (Pasticceria Castelnuovo, 18 Via dei Tulipani, tel. 02 4895 0168).

Sightseeing: Art on the Naviglio is a festival held annually in May, which today showcases the work of more than 300 artists from across Italy. Held along the route of one of the ancient canals, the exhibition threads between Viale Gorizia and Via Casale. Work is in traditional oil, acrylics and watercolours but there are also more experimental genres and mixed media. It's a great place to pick up a unique bargain (info@navigliogrande.mi.it, tel: 02 89409971).

Key areas: The Pinacoteca Ambrosiana is a fantastic art museum in the centre, often overlooked in favour of the city's other attractions. Aside from the permanent collection of works by painters such as Titian, Leonardo da Vinci, Caravaggio and Raphael, the library also contains some important panels by Leonardo (Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, 2 Piazza Pio XI, tel: 02 806921).

Day trips: Lake Maggiore is the largest and most impressive of the Italian lakes, and at around 100km from Milan, it's easily reachable by train or motorway. Stop for a meal or stay a bit longer in the picturesque lakeside towns of Stresa, Verbania and Baveno. These resorts have a genteel charm, good restaurants and are great for souvenir hunters. There are several small islands in the lake which can be visited in warmer months. Isola Madre has botanic gardens and a 16th-century palace; Isola Bella has terraced gardens and a palace dating from the 17th century, and Isola dei Pescatori has kept its small island fishing community.

Milan News & Gossip

Battle of Oranges

VIEWING NOTES no. 4

Wow! That looks messy. It is. The debauched Historical Carnival of Ivrea, 90 minutes from Milan, has a finale that leaves the town covered in pulp from thousands of oranges.

So it's like Tomatina? Sort of, but while the well-known Valencian tomato-lobbing festival is a free- for-all, the battle in Ivrea, an hour from Milan, is more organised.

How so? Nine teams, based on the nine boroughs of the town, re-enact the city's liberation from a medieval tyrant. Under the lead of the generale, grown men in sinister eye masks ride through the town on horse-drawn carts, pelting crowds with half-a-million kilos of oranges.

Ouch, sounds painful. Yep. Especially as the crowds are offered no form of protective clothing. Many sport ripe shiners the next day, although - so far - no one has ever been hospitalised.

Does everyone get pulped? Not if you wear a red hat, which marks you out as a spectator.

What then? After three hours, the generale gives out prizes for best dressed, those with the strongest throw and best cart decoration. The crowd disperses, probably for a much-needed vodka and orange.

The Battaglia delle Arance is on 21 February. storicocarnevaleivrea.it

Milan Trivia

May: In 2009 Milan had 1.894 million visitors, well in excess of its population of just over 1.3 million, making it the 63rd most-visited city in the world.
April: The colours of AC Milan were said to be "red like hell and black to scare the enemy", according to the team's British-born founder Herbert Kilpin in 1899.
March: Milan has been an international hub for centuries, and even today 15.2 per cent of its population was born outside Italy.