Why Visit Now: Milan

Home to some of Italy’s most important design events and showrooms, Milan has become an influential center from which innovative ideas in tech, fashion, and contemporary culture spread around the country and Europe as a whole. The business city is shaped and transformed continuously through events that blend glamour and innovation, but permanent museums and theaters contribute to keeping valuable traditions alive year-round.

Salone del Mobile and Milano Design Week

Milano’s reputation as Italy’s design capital is put under the spotlight in April when the annual Salone del Mobile takes place in the city. Born as a furniture fair, Salone del Mobile has grown to become a global event dedicated to all things design and innovation, attracting industry professionals, enthusiasts, and media from across the world to Milan. Established brands present their new products together with prototypes and experimental projects created by emerging designers, highlighting the technological trends that are driving design ideas internationally. While the core of the exhibition is hosted in Rho Fiera, the whole city comes to life during the week of the Salone, with shows, vernissages, and events showcasing the latest design ideas. Historic ateliers of the Tortona and Brera districts open their doors to the public, while exclusive parties attract the creative crowd.

Fashion City

Milan’s dedication to fashion is best experienced in the Quadrilatero district surrounding the famous Via Montenapoleone, where luxury brands line up one after the other drawing design enthusiasts, models, and influencers year-round. But shopping isn’t all there is — in February Milan’s Women’s Fashion Week leads the long list of fashion-related events that run in the city throughout the year. Important Italian brands such as Prada, Armani, Dolce & Gabbana use the international platform of Milan Fashion Week to showcase their latest collections to a global audience, setting the tone for upcoming trends and casting a significant influence on the global fashion industry. Needless to say, fashion events are not bound to the catwalk alone — during Fashion Week the city comes to life with venues transforming into stages for designers to project their vision for the future of fashion and hosting events aimed at shaping the design discourse around the world.

Benjamin Voros

Innovative Ideas Come to Life at Triennale

Milan may lack the artistic and architectural heritage of other Italian cities, but makes up for it with world-class spaces and events dedicated to contemporary art and design. Triennale is one of them. Found inside the historic Palazzo d’Arte this cultural institution hosts a rich program of exhibitions year-round and organizes the International Exhibition every three years. The 24th International Exhibition of Triennale Milano is expected to take off in May 2025 under the title "Inequalities — How to mend the fractures of humanity." During this important event, Triennale will become a stage for the discussion of themes surrounding social, geographical, and economic disparities as they are perceived in different corners of the globe.

Stay at the Opulent Palazzo Cordusio

Housed in the historic Palazzo Venezia, the latest addition to Milan’s hotel scene adds a modern twist to the city’s architectural heritage. Palazzo Cordusio, part of the Spanish brand Meliá Hotels International, opened in late 2023 in the building designed in 1897 by Luca Beltrami, updating the interior with 84 luxurious rooms, four restaurants and a cocktail bar steps away from the Duomo and Castello Sforzesco. 

melia.com

MiArt, the Fair For Contemporary Art Collectors

If admiring a piece of art in a museum is not enough, perhaps MiArt is the place for you. One of Italy’s largest contemporary art fairs, MiArt is the meeting spot for galleries and collectors, hosting exhibitions but some of the most important names in the art world since 1995. Taking place in Fiera Milano City, this thematic event will return to Milan in April with a new list of galleries showcasing rare works from the early 20th century to experimental pieces of emerging artists from the present day. Running in parallel to MiArt is the MIA Photo Fair, Italy’s first contemporary photography fair, which will exhibit the work of over 500 artists interpreting the theme of “change” through their lenses.

Piano City, a Diffused Concert For All

A music event like no other — PianoCity Milano transforms the city into a grand, open-air concert hall, celebrating the beauty and diversity of piano music in various locations scattered around the city. Combining traditional concert halls and open-air exhibitions in spaces like parks and courtyards, this unique “diffused concert” makes classical music accessible to everyone. Over the course of a mid-May weekend, residents and visitors are treated to an array of performances by both renowned international pianists and emerging artists, encompassing a wide range of genres from classical to contemporary, jazz to experimental, connecting people through the universal language of music. PianoCity Milano fosters a communal atmosphere, encouraging music lovers to explore the city's lesser-known corners while enjoying the sound of piano music resonating through the streets.

New Stars of the Restaurant Scene

The latest edition of the Michelin culinary guide has added two new names to Milan’s fine dining scene, awarding Andrea Aprea, chef of the restaurant with the same name, and the Capitaneo brothers, running the kitchen of the Verso restaurant with two Michelin stars in late 2023. Located on the top floor of a historic building in Corso Venezia, Andrea Aprea has been listed as one of the city’s top dining spots thanks to its contemporary take on Neapolitan cuisine, served with a side of exceptional views over Milan’s skyline. Verso, on the other hand, sits right in Piazza del Duomo and allows you to sit around the kitchen area, admiring the chefs’ skills as a spectacle to complement the seasonal tasting menu.

David Xeli

A Season of Picasso

Pablo Picasso is set to return to Milan in 2024 with two major shows tributing the work of the great Cubist artist. The MUDEC Museum will trace Picasso's rich production, starting from the early days and running to his later work showcasing the “primitive” side of the artist’s body of work. The show, titled “Metamorphosis of the figure” will run from February to late June, followed in September by the exhibition “Picasso lo Straniero” hosted by Palazzo Reale, where Picasso’s political paintings will be on show to highlight the artist’s relationship with Paris, a city he never felt at home in.

Rock’n’Roll at I-Days Festival

Milan is not just business and fashion — discover one of the city’s largest music festivals in July, when I-Days takes place. Originally known as the Independent Days Festival, I-Days has been bringing big names in rock and pop music to San Siro’s Hippodrome since 1999, gathering over 200,000 people under the stage. Previous editions have hosted bands of the likes of Pearl Jam, Queens of the Stone Age, Radiohead, Sonic Youth The Offspring and many more. The 2024 edition is expected to keep up such a track record, livening up the Milanese summer with Metallica, Lana del Rey, Bring Me the Horizon and other major performers.

Mikita Yo

Watch an Opera at La Scala

If rock music is not for you, you may want to check out the new program of La Scala. Considered one of Europe’s most prestigious theatres, La Scala has been hosting international opera, ballet, and classical music shows for nearly 250 years. Since its inauguration in 1778, the 2,000-seat hall has become Milan’s most important center for classical performance with December 7th, the day of Milan's patron saint Sant’Ambrogio, traditionally marking the opening of the opera season. In 2024, La Scala has planned over 250 shows, including interpretations of traditional performances by Verdi, Puccini and Rossini, international acts by Mozart and Wagner and many new events meant to attract families and children as well as opera enthusiasts.

Experimental Architecture

Glass skyscrapers, modern piazzas, apartment blocks covered in greenery and avant-garde university campuses — Milan is Italy’s hub of architectural experimentation, showcasing a vast array of innovative buildings that have reshaped the city’s skyline since the early 2000s. Since 2014, the 33-story Unicredit Tower in Piazza Gae Aulenti Italy’s tallest skyscraper in Italy, measuring 218 metres. But many other landmark structures dot the urban landscape, starting from the iconic Bosco Verticale, the two residential towers covered by 2,000 plants designed by Stefano Boeri, to Zaha Hadid’s twisting Generali Tower, inaugurated in 2019 in the City Life district, and the Haunted House by Rem Koolhaas' OMA studio, an extension of Fondazione Prada in Largo Isarco constructed by converting a 20th-century distillery into a cultural space covered in gold leaves.