Milan Tourism

Known for being the fashion capital of the world, a fact you can’t really benefit from if you aren’t a millionaire, Milan is a large city with a decent transit system, lots to visit and it serves as a hub for people going to many other cities.

The train station is absolutely worth checking out. It is insane

It's like an airport that was actually designed to be beautiful

The other impressive free place to go is the "Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II", home to all the expensive shopping brands

You can check out all the shops full of things you should definitely not buy

Place is also very crowded, as expected. Walking over each other

Honestly a pretty good deal considered the cost of most tourist stuff

---

Pinacoteca Di Brera

One of many art galleries in Milan, featuring the typical fare of 14th-19th century artworks from Italian painters.

A little bit overpriced in my opinion but that might be because I’ve seen like 5 of this exact gallery before and they really are basically the same, varying only in quantity of works and in fame levels of who they’re displaying.

Statue of Napoleon depicted as a God. Amazing craftsmanship but this is sort of perverse

Some more interesting pieces showcasing the daily lives of the common folk. I love this

These are so much more interesting from a historical point of view and unfortunately only 5-10% of the artwork on display

Lots of fancy portraits from the 18th-19th century

16th century portrait by Moroni, very technically proficient compared to this era. Like 200 years ahead of the curve

Don't know what's up with this guy's pants though

A fun thing is guessing the age of the portraits by the type of hats and haircuts

They have a section on art restoration and this weird storage space

Kept finding Chef Boyardee in various paintings and medals. Not sure what the deal is with this hat

18th century "Hunger Games" looking scene.

This guy is really good, lots of paintings of Venice by him

He was a master as painting buildings. The perfectly straight lines and sharp but simplified forms convey the feel of the cities perfectly. I'd buy this.

In the 18th century there was definitely a shift in culture where people became true masters of their crafts like painting and music

Also I think this is for blind people? There's a few of these 3D displays in here. I don't know why a blind person would go to an art gallery.

A few 19th century marbles. These are just too perfect. Hard to compare to the Roman ones since those are so weathered by time

The fine details all the way to the nails... There's people today who are better still but nobody cares anymore sadly

Girl reading

That was a striking portrait. Turns out it is indeed exactly what it looks like

These museums made me discover that I love 18th-19th century art the most

The technical proficiency of 19th century painters got so good I guess people got bored with it and that explains the 20th century shitshow that basically murdered art as an elevated thing

---

Pinacoteca Ambrosiana

Their big draw is owning Da Vinci’s Codex Atlanticus and a huge drawing by Raphael which they say is one of the few known actual works of his since the paintings might have been done in part or whole by other people working for his workshop.

They mostly have lame Da Vinci drawings on display with random math scribbles, as they likely lent out the better pages to other museums ( like the Vitruvian man that was in Venice ).

Again a bit overpriced but very well curated Museum in general with a great collection of 18th and 19th century works.

Interesting curation choice of spotlight directly on paintings

Original art used to make prints for this book

Preliminary sketch/drawing

These are more interesting to me than the paintings

Huge drawing by Raphaelo. Centerpiece of the museum

Photo of the finished work

Little section on landscapes

Japanese vases for some reason

Big section on church treasures and various relics

19th century they eventually learned to paint babies

The second main draw are these DaVinci drawings

They are mostly math / physics scribbles. Not the most interesting...

---

Sforza Castle

Absolutely massive castle with many museums inside that I will just count as one. Just 5 Euro entry fee making this basically the best value attraction of this entire trip.
You can spend hours and hours perusing their vast collection of literally everything: Weapons, statues, tapestries, musical instruments, paintings, furniture etc.

If you visited just one history museum in Italy, it could be this one and it would give you a solid idea of everything that went on from the Neolithic to the 19th century.

---

Duomo

The most iconic building in Milan. Absolutely massive cathedral, but steep entry fee and if you didn’t book the skip the line tickets online you are probably shit out of luck:

The Duomo is definitely the most impressive building I’ve seen in Italy though. It is absolutely gigantic ( as Jesus has made clear he wants in the bible).
”Waste not your efforts on infrastructure improvement and instead erect massive monuments to my glory that rival the palaces of the most decadent Emperors” - Jesus C.

---

That only scratched the surface of all the stuff there is to do in Milan of course, you can spend a few days here depending on what you like to do in life. The Duomo, train station and shopping gallery are definitely among the most impressive things I’ve seen in Italy so far ( other than landscapes.

---

All the links to the Italian Trip:

More Travel

---