Rick Steves - Rick Steves Snapshot Milan & the Italian Lakes District

SNAPSHOT

Milan & the Italian Lakes District

This Snapshot guide, excerpted from my guidebook Rick Steves Italy, introduces you to Milan. If Florence represents the Renaissance and Rome equals antiquity, Milan is 21st-century Italy. You can walk on the rooftop of one of Europes grandest Gothic cathedrals, window-shop in fashionable neighborhoods, visit the worlds most famous opera house, and admire a Leonardo masterpiece. Explore the citys grand, glass-domed arcade and stroll along one of Europes longest pedestrian-only boulevards. Sip an aperitivo at a sidewalk caf, and sample Milans culinary specialties. If youre looking for a sophisticated, smart slice of Italy, youll find it here.

I also cover the seductively beautiful Italian Lakes District. This region, where Italy meets the Alps, seems heaven-sent for nature lovers. Lake Como offers a mix of accessibility, scenery, and offbeatness with a heady whiff of 19th-century whimsy. Lake Maggiore, though more densely populated and more developed, has exotic garden islands and nearby mountains. The lakes are the place to take a vacation from your vacation, lingering in charming towns such as Varenna or Bellagio. Hop on a lake ferry and glide to dreamy villas, or ride a cable car to pristine alpine meadows.

To help you have the best trip possible, Ive included the following topics in this book:

Planning Your Time, with advice on how to make the most of your limited time

Orientation, including tourist information (abbreviated as TI), tips on public transportation, local tour options, and helpful hints

Sights with ratings:

Dont miss

Try hard to see

Worthwhile if you can make it

No ratingWorth knowing about

Sleeping and Eating, with good-value recommendations in every price range

Connections, with tips on trains, buses, and driving

Practicalities, near the end of this book, has information on money, staying connected, hotel reservations, transportation, and more, plus Italian survival phrases.

To travel smartly, read this little book in its entirety before you go. Its my hope that this guide will make your trip more meaningful and rewarding. Traveling like a temporary local, youll get the absolute most out of every mile, minute, and dollar.

Buon viaggio!

Milano

For every church in Rome, theres a bank in Milan. Italys second city and the capital of the Lombardy region, Milan is a hardworking, style-conscious, time-is-money city of 1.3 million. A melting pot of people and history, Milans industriousness may come from the Teutonic blood of its original inhabitants, the Lombards, or from its years under Austrian rule. Either way, Milan is modern Italys center of fashion, industry, banking, TV, publishing, and conventions. Its also a major university town, a train hub, and host to two football (soccer) teams and the nearby Monza Formula One racetrack. And as home to a prestigious opera house, Milan is one of the touchstones of the world of opera.

Artistically, Milan cant compare with Rome and Florence, but the city does have several unique and noteworthy sights: the Duomo and the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II arcade, La Scala Opera House, Michelangelos last piet sculpture (in Sforza Castle), and Leonardo da Vincis The Last Supper.

Founded by the Romans as Mediolanum (the place in the middle), by the fourth century AD it was the capital of the western half of the Roman Empire, the namesake of Constantines Edict of Milan legalizing Christianity, and home of the powerful early Christian bishop, St. Ambrose.

After some barbarian darkness, medieval Milan became a successful mercantile city, eventually rising to regional prominence under the Visconti and Sforza families. The mammoth cathedral, or Duomo, is a testament to the citys wealth and ambition. By the time of the Renaissance, Milan was nicknamed the New Athens, and was enough of a cultural center for Leonardo da Vinci to call it home. Then came 400 years of foreign domination (under Spain, Austria, France, more Austria). Milan was a focal point of the 1848 revolution against Austria and helped lead Italy to unification in 1870. The impressive Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II and La Scala Opera House reflect the sophistication of turn-of-the-20th-century Milan as one of Europes cultural powerhouses.

Mussolini left a heavy fascist touch on the architecture here (such as the central train station). His excesses also led to the WWII bombing of Milan. But the city rose again. The 1959 Pirelli Tower (the skinny skyscraper in front of the station), while a trendsetter in its day, now seems quaint considering Milans glassy new high-rise developments. Today, Milan is people-friendly, with a great transit system and inviting pedestrian zones.