Visiting Lombardy
Milan is like no other Italian city: it works, it builds, and its historic centre fits into a few streets around the cathedral. What you come to see is concentrated, and the rest is a metropolis of offices.
To the north the plain runs into the pre-Alps and sinks into lakes. Como is the deepest, squeezed between two walls of mountain; Lake Garda is the largest, with olive trees along its shores and wind in the afternoon.
You will love it if
- You want a big city and lakes in the same trip
- Design, fashion and opera matter to you
- You come in May, June or September, when the plain is breathable
Look elsewhere if
- You are after medieval lanes: Milan has very few
- Humid heat floors you: July passes thirty-five degrees without a breath of air
- You come in August: the city empties and closes, restaurants included
The must-sees
The highlights
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1 Leonardo's Last Supper +18 recs
Painted dry on a refectory wall, which is why it began deteriorating within the following century. Fifteen minutes of viewing, in groups of thirty, and slots go weeks ahead.
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2 La Scala +21 recs
Opened in 1778, with a pit designed so that the voice carries without amplification. Gallery seats are sold on the day at the box office, and the museum gives access to a box during the day.
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3 The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II +19 recs
A covered arcade from 1877, glass and iron on four arms in a cross, between the cathedral and La Scala. The bull mosaic in the floor is worn hollow by generations of heels spun on it for luck.
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5 San Siro Stadium +5 recs
Eighty thousand seats and two clubs sharing it, almost unique in Europe. The tour goes through the dressing rooms and the tunnel, and on match days it is closed, which is worth checking before you go.
Our itineraries in Lombardy
| Length | Itinerary | What you see |
|---|---|---|
| Long weekend (3 days) | Milan › Bergamo | Cathedral, Last Supper, upper town |
| 1 week | Milan › Como › Bellagio | City, boat, lakeside villas |
| 10 days | Milan › Como › Varese › Bergamo › Sirmione | All three lakes and both cities |
The train does everything: Como in an hour, Bergamo in fifty minutes, Sirmione via Desenzano in an hour and a half. A car only helps you drive round a lake, and the shores are jammed at weekends.
Once there, the boat replaces the road. The public service lines call at every village on Lake Como and cost a fraction of a private excursion.
When to visit Lombardy
| Rating | Season | Weather | Crowds and prices |
|---|---|---|---|
| May, June and September | 20 to 28 °C, bright | Busy, mid-range prices | |
| April and October | 14 to 21 °C, showers | Moderate, good prices | |
| July and August | 28 to 36 °C, heavy | Lakes full, city shut in August | |
| November to March | 2 to 10 °C, fog | Quiet, boats on a reduced service |
Our advice
Avoid the second half of August in Milan: the city goes on holiday, and many restaurants and workshops close for three weeks. The lakes, meanwhile, are at their busiest in exactly that period.
Getting to Lombardy
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1 By plane Fastest
Three airports, Malpensa, Linate and Bergamo, served from across Britain by easyJet and Ryanair in about two hours. Linate is fifteen minutes from the centre by metro, Malpensa fifty by train.
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2 By train Most comfortable
Eurostar to Paris, then Paris to Milan in seven hours through the Maurienne valley and Turin. A sleeper also runs from Paris, and you are in town for breakfast.
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3 By car On the ground
useful only for the lakes. Central Milan sits inside both a congestion charge zone and a limited traffic zone, and parking costs the price of a meal a day.
The cheapest combination: fly to Milan, take the regional train to the lake, and use the boat once there. A car is only justified if you want to sleep in a village with no station, which is common on the western shore.
Getting around Lombardy
Milan has four metro lines and old trams still in service, with a single ticket valid on everything. Bergamo is climbed by funicular, and on the lakes the boat beats the road.
Worth knowing
On Lake Como, the fast boats and the car ferries have neither the same stops nor the same fares, and only the ferries take cars. The service thins out sharply from November to March: check the day's timetable before setting off for the far shore.
What to eat in Lombardy
- Risotto alla milanese: carnaroli rice, beef marrow and saffron, stirred for twenty minutes without a break. The yellow comes from saffron alone, never from colouring.
- Cotoletta: a breaded veal chop cooked in butter and served on the bone. The Milanese version keeps the bone and is eaten thick, unlike its Viennese cousin.
- Ossobuco: braised veal shin, served with gremolata, a chop of lemon zest, garlic and parsley. You eat the marrow with a small spoon.
- Panettone: a tall naturally leavened cake, three days of proving, traditionally Christmas fare but sold year round by the good houses.
- Pizzoccheri: buckwheat pasta from the Valtellina, cooked with cabbage and potato, bound with melted butter and mountain cheese.
- Lake fish: perch, whitefish and shad are served grilled or breaded on the shores of Como. Risotto with lake fish is a lakeside speciality.
- Franciacorta: a sparkling wine with second fermentation in the bottle, made west of Brescia. The estates open to visitors, and the style is more vinous than festive.
The aperitivo is an institution in Milan: from six to nine in the evening, the price of the glass gives access to a buffet, and it often replaces dinner. Neighbourhood kitchens close between three and seven.
Where to stay in Lombardy
| Area | What it is for | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Milan, centre | Cathedral, La Scala, museums | All on foot, the dearest in the region |
| Milan, Navigli or Isola | Aperitivo, design, evenings out | Fifteen minutes by metro, far cheaper |
| Como | Boats, villas, mountain above | Direct station from Milan, a living town out of season |
| Bellagio or Porlezza | Heart of the lake, gardens, quiet | Little capacity, full from June to September |
| Bergamo | Upper town, walls, airport | The best value in the region |
Two bases are enough: Milan for the city and the museums, a lakeside village for the rest. An hour of train separates them, which makes the split painless.
On the lake, sleeping on the eastern shore of Como gives more frequent boats and lower prices than the more photographed western side.
How much does a trip in Lombardy cost?
| Style | Length | Budget per person |
|---|---|---|
| Budget (hostel, aperitivo, public transport) | 7 days | 500 to 700 € |
| Comfortable (hotel, restaurants, Last Supper and Scala booked) | 7 days | 1,100 to 1,600 € |
| High end (lakeside hotel, starred tables) | 7 days | 3,000 to 4,500 € |
- Booking the Last Supper: fifteen minutes of viewing that must be booked weeks ahead. Without a ticket there is no queue to join: it is sold out or nothing.
- The aperitivo: a glass and its buffet cost half a sit-down dinner, and Milanese people make it their evening meal several times a week.
- The scheduled boat: on Lake Como the public crossing costs a few euros where a private excursion asks fifty.
- The Scala gallery: the highest seats are sold on the day at a very low price, with partial sightlines but intact acoustics.
- Lunch: the midday menu is half the evening card, and in the business district it is built to be quick.
Traditions and way of life in Lombardy
Lombardy takes its name from the Lombards, a Germanic people who ruled here for two centuries after the fall of Rome. That left a body of law, monasteries and a dialect with nothing Tuscan about it, still spoken by older people in the valleys.
Industrial design was born here in the 1950s, around a handful of furniture makers and a trade fair that went global. The Museum of the 20th Century tells that shift, from futurism to the mass-produced chair.
Two useful habits. Coffee is drunk at the counter, in three minutes, and sitting down doubles the price. And in churches covered shoulders are required, Milan cathedral included, where the check is made at the entrance to the square.
