Why Milan?
Milan isn’t like the rest of Italy. Fashion and design hub, the country’s financial and media centre, and an industrial powerhouse, this is Italy plus, Italy at its most gloriously urbane. You can stop for a cappuccino every now and then, but the home of the annual March/April Design Week and the bi-annual couture shows (September 23 to 29 for the spring/summer 2016 womenswear) is a city with an irresistible energy, one that encourages visitors to match its quick pace, to get up and go: see the sights, and shop, taking advantage of what are probably the most scary but stylish, useful sales assistants in the world. And with Milan hosting Expo 2015 for the next six months – until October 31 – now is a perfect time to visit.
Collectively immaculate, groomed to its fingertips, voluble on every subject under the sun but unfazed by a thing, Milan seems coolly adept at all things it turns its hand to. So, si si, sure, OK, six weeks ago the Expo location – 272 acres on the city outskirts – was still just a building site. But the Milanese have been insouciantly happy to show you it was so. Anyone who's been interested has been able to follow the construction of the participating countries' pavilions on expo2015.org. Progress on the pavilions has been monitored by a camera mounted on a drone that has been flown over the site each week – flying over the fledgling buildings only during the lunch break, though, which somehow seems wonderfully and typically Italian, so as not to bother the workmen. Now is probably not the time to mention that the Duomo, the city's central and most famous landmark, and on which construction started in 1386, wasn't actually finished until 1965, and instead to say that Expo 2015 – whose theme is feeding the planet and sustainability – will undoubtedly dazzle in true Milanese style – in the suavest, most apparently effortless way.
A comfortable bed
The three most elegant hotels in this city are the old Principe di Savoia, the much newer Four Seasons and the Mandarin Oriental. The antique-filled Principe (0039 026 2301, dorchestercollection.com/Milan/hotel-principe-di-savoia), which opened in 1927, is a 10-minute taxi ride outside the centre, but seconds from a station that takes you to the Expo 2015 site, and is the traditional base for visiting celebrities, politicians and royalty. Doubles in early June cost from around €560 (Dh2,213). The Four Seasons (0039 027 7088, fourseasons.com/Milan) is a favourite among the fashionistas: the 15th-century converted convent in which it's located lies between the historic shopping streets of Via della Spiga and Via Montenapoleone. Five minutes' walk away, the Mandarin Oriental (0039 028 7318 888, mandarinoriental.com/Milan), in four converted 19th-century townhouses, also mixes a historic and ultra-modern vibe. In June, at both the hotels, double rooms start at about €630 (Dh2,490).
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Find your feet
Finding the centre of this red-roofed city on the Lombardy plains, which Leonarda da Vinci made his home in the 1550s, followed a few centuries later by Giorgio Armani and other kings of fashion, is easy. All roads lead to the Piazza del Duomo, dominated by the world’s fourth-largest cathedral, the massively Gothic, multi-spired – 135 to be exact – Duomo. The city’s most elegant shopping mall, the 19th-century glass-roofed Gallerie Vittorio Emanuele II, opens onto the Piazza. Walking through this, you emerge on the other side into Piazza della Scala, where the famous opera house is another of the city’s key sights.
The magnificent 2,800-seat auditorium is dominated by six tiers of private boxes – each a confection of gilding and crimson velvet – the sale of which funded the original building of the opera house in 1778. The two galleries above it are infamous as the chosen seats of vociferous fans and critics. The night in 2006 when they booed off Roberto Alagna and his understudy had to come on so quickly he sang in jeans and T-shirt remains a proudly defended triumph.
On the outskirts, besides the Expo site, there’s the great San Siro Stadium, shrine to football, a sport that the Milanese are obsessed with and 40 minutes outside the city is the Monza F1 racetrack.
Meet the locals
There's no denying it: a distinct coolness exists between many Milanese and tourists – those often painfully uncoordinated foreigners who oblige them to step aside on a crowded pavement, protecting their Ferragamo-shod, silk-socked feet from the clumsy trainers no true Milanese would be seen dead in outside the gym. But a hugely enjoyable way to get an insider's take on Milan is to book one of the small-group tours run by toursbylocals.com. Expensive, yes, but rewarding. "On the path of Leonardo Da Vinci", for instance, costs €211 (Dh832) for three hours – whether you gather the maximum of 10 allowed or book it as a treat to do alone or as a couple. You will fall in love with the city and the wit and knowledge of the guide in about 10 minutes and will find out a lot more than you would trudging around, peering at a travel app on your phone in the sunshine. Plus, if you want, you can always just sit at a cafe table and talk, then just see the highlights of the tour.
Book a table
The Four Season's Il Foyer lounge, for tea; the Principe's lounge for 6pm drinks; and Antonio Guida's restaurant at the Mandarin Oriental (irresistible risotto) for dinner are all highly rated. Among cafes, recommended are Ambroeus for an early cappuccino (Italians never drink such a milky drink after 11am; santambroeusmilano.it); for tea, Cova, on Via Montenapoleone (pasticceriacova.it), and the Caffe Trussardi opposite La Scala before the opera (cafetrussardi.it). Among the non-hotel restaurants, Armani Nobu on Via Gastone Pisoni ticks all see-and-be-seen boxes (noburestaurants.com), although Armani's reputed own favourite is Da Giacomo (giacomoristorante.com). For risotto and Milanese specialities such as spinach rice soufflé, there's rustic Trattoria Arlati (trattoriaarlati.it); for pasta, the chandeliered, post-industrial Carlo e Camilla (carloecamillainsegheria.it); for meat, Osteria del Treno (osteriadeltreno.it), and for pizza, Gino Sorbillo (sorbillo.it).
Shopper’s paradise
Milan considers itself the centre of the fashion world, and there are certainly no more persuasive salespeople than the skinny, scarily well-groomed crew who stalk those famous boutiques in the Gallerie Vittorio Emanuele II, Via della Spiga and Via Montenapoloeone in the Quadrilatero d'Oro. Watching the seductive way a salesman will lay a shirt over his arm and then drape a tie over that once a male customer has decided on a jacket, with a smiling murmur of "and perhaps the signor would like a shirt to go with it, and ..." is like watching a snake charmer and his hapless snake. The thing is, however, whatever is being recommended invariably seems totally right. More often than not, sales assistants have a genuinely good eye and ability to judge what will look best on you, and will send you away with a delighted spring in your step besides a massive dent in your finances. La Rinascente (rinascente.it), opposite the Duomo, is the must-shop department store, and 10 Corso Como (10corsocomo.com) the city's most famous multi-brand fashion and lifestyle store.
Battle-hardened shoppers will feel their heart-rate quicken at the Serravalle outlet village, 80 kilometres outside Milan, with 200 boutiques representing all the Italian designers, at up to 70 per cent off regular retail prices. A return coach tour from viator.com costs €20.5 (Dh81) for a 10am to 6.30pm day out, two hours of which is travelling time. ("Six hours is not enough time to shop," some commenters have noted on their site, somewhat staggeringly). And for homeware, the musts are De Padova (depadova.it), Nilufar (nilufar.com), Understate (understate.it) and Rossana Orlandi (rossanaorlandi.com).
What to avoid
Every visitor to Milan is exhorted to gaze at the view from the top of the Duomo. Forget it. It’s just a horribly hot slog up steep steps. The crush of people in the queue you are invariably required to join before attempting the climb should be warning enough. Just look at a photo of the panorama of red roofs, plains, and distant mountains.
Don’t miss
Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper, painted on a refectory wall of the Basilica de Maria delle Grazie, is one of the world's most famous paintings, which is why unless you're prepared to beat the odds to get a ticket via Milan Guide Services, Select Italy or Tickitaly etc, you will need to prebook (€6.5 [Dh26], online at vivaticket.it), where tickets are released three months ahead) or over the phone, which is better because they often have cancellations that don't show up online (0039 029 2800 360).
Getting there
Direct flights with Etihad (etihad.com) from Abu Dhabi cost from about Dh3,265 in June, and the flight time to Milan is about six hours.
