Milan

Milan is Italy’s northern engine — the financial capital, the fashion capital, and the city that generates the largest share of Italian GDP. It was a Roman settlement (Mediolanum), then the capital of the Western Roman Empire in the 4th century, then a Visconti and Sforza duchy, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, then the industrial centre of unified Italy. Each period left its mark: the Sforza Castle, built in the 15th century on the western edge of the old city, now houses a complex of civic museums including Michelangelo’s last unfinished work, the Rondanini Pietà. The Duomo di Milano, begun in 1386 and not formally completed until 1965, is the largest cathedral in Italy and the third largest in the world, with 3,400 statues on its façade and a roofline of pinnacles and spires.

The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II connects the Duomo piazza to the Piazza della Scala — a 19th-century glass-and-iron arcade that is one of the oldest covered shopping galleries in the world. The mosaic floor has a bull in the centre that visitors spin their heels on for luck. La Scala, the opera house on the far side, opened in 1778 and has premiered the major works of Verdi, Puccini and Bellini; the façade is the standard stop and the museum and auditorium require a separate ticket. Santa Maria delle Grazie, a 15-minute walk west of the Duomo, houses Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper in its refectory — a mural painted directly onto the plaster wall between 1495 and 1498, now heavily restored. Entry requires advance booking, often weeks ahead in peak season.

Halal dining in Milan is well-established and more accessible than in most Italian cities, concentrated in the Porta Venezia and Loreto neighbourhoods in the east of the centre, and around the central station (Stazione Centrale) area. The city has a sizeable Muslim community and several mosques, the most central being the Islamic Cultural Institute on Viale Jenner. Milan is best visited March to June or September to November; July and August are hot and the city empties of locals. The fashion district (Quadrilatero della Moda) — Via Montenapoleone, Via della Spiga — is in the northeast of the centre, walkable from the Duomo in 15 minutes.