The Milan and Lake Como Edit: 9 Places I'd Send a Friend
When people ask me what to do in Milan, they rarely mean the Duomo. They have seen the Duomo. What they mean is: where would you actually go.
MORNING IN MILAN
01 / PASTICCERIA SISSI
Piazza Risorgimento 6, Porta Monforte
A tiny pink pastry shop with wooden tables and a garden in the back. Sissi and her Senegalese husband, Zig, have run it since the early nineties. Have a brioche alla crema and a cappuccino standing at the bar, like everyone else.
Good to know: closed Tuesdays, and open mornings only on Mondays.
02 / FIORAIO BIANCHI CAFFÈ
Via Montebello 7, Brera
About forty years ago this florist became a Parisian-style bistro, and it never really stopped being a florist. The flowers on every surface are for sale. It is the most romantic lunch in Brera, and the only one where you can take the centerpiece home.
Good to know: closed Sundays.
AFTERNOON
03 / VILLA NECCHI CAMPIGLIO
Via Mozart 14, Quadrilatero del Silenzio
This 1930s villa was designed by Piero Portaluppi for a wealthy industrial family. It hides behind a garden in the quiet residential pocket locals call the Quadrilatero del Silenzio, a few minutes from San Babila. Inside there is marble, walnut and a pool, and if it looks familiar, it is the house from I Am Love with Tilda Swinton. The café in the garden is where you will want to stay.
Good to know: open Wednesday to Sunday. The ticket includes an audio guide in English, or you can book a guided tour.
04 / FONDAZIONE PRADA AND BAR LUCE
Largo Isarco 2, south Milan
Prada's art foundation lives in a former distillery reimagined by Rem Koolhaas's studio, OMA, including a building covered in gold leaf. The exhibitions change. The reason to go never does: Bar Luce, the café designed by Wes Anderson, with pastel Formica, vintage pinball machines and a ceiling that copies the Galleria in miniature.
05 / LABORATORIO PARAVICINI
Via Nerino 8, Cinque Vie
In a hidden courtyard in the old center, Costanza Paravicini and her daughters, Benedetta and Margherita, hand-paint ceramic tableware: hot-air balloons, circus scenes, monograms made to order. It is the most Milanese souvenir I can think of.
EVENING
06 / BAR BASSO
Via Plinio 39, near Porta Venezia
The drink the internet fell for a few years ago was invented here, by mistake. In the seventies, owner Mirko Stocchetto reached for sparkling wine instead of gin, and the Negroni Sbagliato was born. The room has barely changed since the fifties, walnut panels and chandeliers included. Order the Sbagliato in the giant glass.
07 / TRATTORIA DEL NUOVO MACELLO
Via Cesare Lombroso 20, Calvairate
The trattoria is named after the old slaughterhouse across the street and has been run by the same family for generations. It serves one of the best cotolette in Milan: veal aged forty days, breaded and served pink, on the bone. It is in the Michelin Guide.
A DAY ON LAKE COMO
From Milano Centrale, the train to Como San Giovanni takes about forty minutes. From Milano Cadorna, the regional train to Como Lago takes about an hour and leaves you almost at the water. Either way, the ticket is around five euros.
08 / ORRIDO DI NESSO
Nesso, east shore
Halfway between Como and Bellagio, two mountain streams crash through a narrow gorge and pour into the lake under the medieval Ponte della Civera. It is free, it is a short walk down a few steps, and it is the photo everyone will ask you about when you get home. Take the ferry or the C30 bus from Como and follow the signs.
09 / DA LUCIANO BOTTEGA E CAFFÈ
Via Vecchia Regina 61, Laglio, west shore
Laglio is the village George Clooney made famous, but the reason to stop is smaller and better. Da Luciano is a family-run deli in an old butcher's shop, with tables facing the water. Order a board of local cured meats and cheeses and a spritz, then finish with the pistachio gelato.
