Things to do in Milan: 14 sights worth your time

Prices, opening hours and free days below were checked on the official sites on 5 October 2026. Milan’s civic museums raised their prices on 10 May 2026, so older guides quoting €5 for Sforza Castle are out of date.

Milan’s top sights at a glance

Sight	Price	Closed	Metro	Allow
Duomo	From €10	Museum closed Wed	Duomo (M1, M3)	1 to 2.5 hours
Last Supper	€15	Mon	Conciliazione (M1)	15 min inside, 1 hour total
Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II	Free	Never	Duomo (M1)	20 minutes
Sforza Castle museums	€10, courtyards free	Mon	Cairoli (M1), Lanza (M2)	About 2 hours
La Scala Museum	€12	A few holidays	Duomo (M1, M3)	About 1 hour
Pinacoteca di Brera	€20	Mon	Lanza (M2), Montenapoleone (M3)	About 2 hours
Navigli and Darsena	Free	Never	Porta Genova (M2)	An evening
Monumental Cemetery	Free	Mon	Monumentale (M5), Garibaldi (M2)	About 1 hour
Sant’Ambrogio	Free	Never	Sant’Ambrogio (M2)	30 minutes
Porta Nuova and Bosco Verticale	Free	Never	Garibaldi (M2, M5)	1 hour
Fondazione Prada	€15	Tue	Lodi T.I.B.B. (M3)	2 hours
Museo del Novecento	€10	Mon	Duomo (M1, M3)	1 to 1.5 hours
San Siro stadium tour	€37	Match and event days vary	San Siro Stadio (M5)	1.5 hours
Santa Maria presso San Satiro	Free	Never	Duomo (M1, M3)	15 minutes

The “Allow” column is a planning estimate based on what each visit includes, not an official figure.

1. Duomo di Milano

Milan’s cathedral sits on Piazza del Duomo, and you can climb onto its roof. Up there you walk among 135 spires and more than 3,400 statues, with views to the mountains on clear days.

• Price: €10 for the cathedral and Duomo Museum, €22 with the rooftop by stairs (251 steps), €26 by lift.
• Hours: every day 9am to 7pm, last entry 6pm. The Duomo Museum is closed on Wednesdays.
• Metro: Duomo (M1 red, M3 yellow).
• Allow: about 1 hour for the cathedral and museum, 2 to 2.5 hours with the rooftop.

Buy on the official shop, ticket.duomomilano.it, where online tickets carry no fees. Our Duomo tickets guide explains which ticket to pick, lift or stairs, and the dress code.

2. The Last Supper

Leonardo’s mural is in the old dining hall of the Santa Maria delle Grazie convent. It is the one sight in Milan you cannot add at the last minute.

• Price: €15, booked in your name on cenacolovinciano.vivaticket.it.
• Hours: Tuesday to Sunday 8:15am to 7pm. Closed Mondays.
• Metro: Conciliazione (M1) or Cadorna (M1, M2). Tram 16 stops outside.
• Allow: 15 minutes in the room, plus 30 minutes to check in before your slot.

Tickets sell out weeks ahead. Our Last Supper tickets guide covers release dates, the Wednesday noon drop and tours that include entry.

3. Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II

A glass-roofed arcade from 1877 that links Piazza del Duomo with Piazza della Scala. You will walk through it anyway on the way from the cathedral to La Scala, so look up at the dome when you do.

• Price: free. It has no doors and is open around the clock. Shops and cafés keep their own hours.
• Metro: Duomo (M1).
• Allow: 20 minutes, longer if you stop for a coffee.

The Fondazione Prada’s Osservatorio gallery is inside the Galleria, and your Fondazione Prada ticket covers it.

4. Sforza Castle (Castello Sforzesco)

Milan’s castle now holds a cluster of city museums. The best known is Michelangelo’s Rondanini Pietà, which has a museum of its own. The ticket also covers the armoury, the picture gallery, the Egyptian gallery and the musical instruments collection.

• Price: €10 for all castle museums on the same day (€5 reduced, for 65+ and university students). Under 18s enter free. The courtyards are free every day from 7am to 7:30pm.
• Hours: museums Tuesday to Sunday 10am to 5:30pm, last entry 4:30pm. Closed Mondays, 1 January, 1 May and 25 December.
• Free days: the first Sunday of every month for everyone. The second Tuesday of the month is free for visitors up to age 25.
• Metro: Cairoli (M1), Lanza (M2) or Cadorna (M1, M2).
• Allow: about 2 hours for the museums.

On weekends, the castle runs a walk-in guided tour of the museums at 11am, in English on Saturdays, for €20 including the ticket. Meet at the Infopoint at 10:45am. The battlement walk (Merlate Panoramiche) is a separate €10 ticket. Details are on milanocastello.it.

5. Teatro alla Scala and its museum

La Scala is Milan’s opera house. With a museum ticket you see the theatre collection and can look into the auditorium from a third-tier box.

• Price: €12 (€8 reduced from age 6 and for over-65s, free under 6). A 60-minute guided tour costs €30 per person, with no discounts.
• Hours: every day 9:30am to 5:30pm, last entry 5pm. Closed 7, 25 and 26 December, 1 January, Easter, 1 May and 15 August.
• Metro: Duomo (M1, M3), about a four-minute walk, or Montenapoleone (M3). The museum entrance is on Largo Ghiringhelli, to the side of the theatre.
• Allow: about 1 hour.

You can only see the auditorium when there is no rehearsal, performance or event in it, and the museum cannot tell you in advance. If the view of the hall is what you came for, go early in the day. Tickets are on museoscala.org.

6. Brera district and the Pinacoteca di Brera

Brera is the neighborhood around Via Brera, a short walk from La Scala. Its art gallery, the Pinacoteca di Brera, sits at Via Brera 28 and shares its ticket with the newer Palazzo Citterio.

• Price: €20 for the Grande Brera ticket, which includes the Pinacoteca and Palazzo Citterio. Palazzo Citterio entry is valid for the same day and the following six days. Under 18s enter free.
• Hours: Tuesday to Sunday 8:30am to 7:15pm, last entry 6pm. Closed Mondays, 1 January, 1 May and 25 December.
• Free days: the first Sunday of the month, with a reservation.
• Metro: Lanza (M2), Montenapoleone (M3) or Cairoli (M1).
• Allow: about 2 hours for the gallery, plus time to walk the district.

A reservation is required, including on free Sundays. Book on brerabooking.org or call +39 02 72105141 (9am to 6pm). Audio guides in English cost €5. Older blogs quote €15; the official tariff page now shows €20.

7. Navigli and the Darsena

The Navigli are the canals in the southwest of the city. The Darsena is the old dock where they meet, and the Naviglio Grande runs west from it, lined with bars and restaurants.

• Price: free to walk.
• Metro: Porta Genova (M2). Trams 3, 9 and 10 also stop nearby.
• When to go: early evening for aperitivo, which in Milan runs roughly from 6pm to 8 or 9pm. You order a drink and it comes with snacks or a small buffet.
• Allow: an evening.

8. Monumental Cemetery (Cimitero Monumentale)

A cemetery opened in 1866, where Milan’s families commissioned tombs from leading sculptors of the 1900s. The city’s tourism office calls it an outdoor museum, and it is free.

• Price: free, no ticket or booking.
• Hours: Tuesday to Sunday 8am to 6pm, last entry 30 minutes before closing. Closed Mondays. On some holidays (including Easter Sunday, 25 December and 15 August) it closes at 1pm.
• Metro: Monumentale (M5) or Garibaldi (M2).
• Allow: about 1 hour.

Garibaldi station also serves Porta Nuova, so you can pair the two.

9. Basilica di Sant’Ambrogio

A Romanesque basilica dedicated to Ambrose, Milan’s patron saint. It is free and quick to see, so it fits around a timed slot at the Last Supper.

• Price: free to enter the basilica. The Ambrosius treasury museum, opened in December 2025, charges separately.
• Hours: the basilica’s website lists 7:30am to 12:30pm and 2:30pm to 7pm. Sightseeing pauses during Mass.
• Metro: Sant’Ambrogio (M2).
• Allow: 30 minutes.

10. Porta Nuova and Bosco Verticale

Milan’s modern business district, built around Piazza Gae Aulenti. The Bosco Verticale towers, two apartment blocks covered in trees, stand next to it. They are private homes, so you see them from the street.

• Price: free. The Biblioteca degli Alberi park next to the towers is public.
• Metro: Garibaldi (M2, M5), Gioia (M2) or Isola (M5).
• Allow: 1 hour, or longer if you continue into the Isola neighborhood.

The towers face the park directly, which is where most people take photos.

11. Fondazione Prada

A contemporary art center in the south of the city, with changing exhibitions and a second space, the Osservatorio, in the Galleria.

• Price: €15 full, €12 reduced (students under 26 and over-65s). The ticket also covers the Osservatorio in the Galleria. Online tickets carry a €1 fee.
• Hours: 10am to 7pm. Closed Tuesdays.
• Metro: Lodi T.I.B.B. (M3), or tram 24.
• Allow: about 2 hours.

The outdoor areas and the bookshop are free without a ticket. Bar Luce, the café inside, is closed on Tuesdays as well. Check current exhibitions on fondazioneprada.org.

12. Museo del Novecento

Twentieth-century Italian art, starting with the Futurists, in a building on Piazza del Duomo.

• Price: €10 (€5 for 65+, university students and ages 18 to 25). Free up to age 17. The ticket includes temporary exhibitions.
• Hours: Tuesday to Sunday 10am to 7:30pm, Thursdays until 10:30pm. Last entry one hour before closing. Closed Mondays.
• Free days: the first Sunday of the month for everyone, the second Tuesday for visitors up to 25.
• Metro: Duomo (M1, M3).
• Allow: 1 to 1.5 hours.

The late Thursday opening is useful if you spend the day at the Duomo. Details on museodelnovecento.org.

13. San Siro stadium tour

The home stadium of both AC Milan and Inter. The official Museum and Tour takes you into both teams’ locker rooms, through the players’ tunnel to the edge of the pitch, and into the club museum.

• Price: €37 for adults, €27 for under-14s and over-65s, as shown on the official ticket site on 5 October 2026. Prices can change by date.
• Entrance: Gate 6, Piazzale Angelo Moratti.
• Metro: San Siro Stadio (M5), or tram 16.
• Allow: about 1.5 hours including the museum.

Book on tickets.sansirostadium.com. The Skywalk on the stadium roof, 55 meters up, is a separate ticket and is not open to children under 7. Tour times change on match, concert and event days, so check the calendar before you pick a date.

14. Santa Maria presso San Satiro

A small church a few steps off Via Torino, near the Duomo. Bramante painted a false choir behind the altar: it looks several meters deep but is under one meter deep.

• Price: free.
• Hours: open daily with a midday break. Published hours differ between sources, so check before a special trip.
• Metro: Duomo (M1, M3).
• Allow: 15 minutes.

Free vs paid sights in Milan

Free every day	Free on the first Sunday of the month	Always paid
Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II	Sforza Castle museums	Duomo (from €10)
Sforza Castle courtyards	Museo del Novecento	Last Supper (€15, free Sundays still need booking)
Monumental Cemetery (closed Mon)	Pinacoteca di Brera (booking required)	La Scala Museum (€12)
Sant’Ambrogio		Fondazione Prada (€15)
Santa Maria presso San Satiro		San Siro tour (€37)
Navigli, Darsena, Porta Nuova

The next first Sunday after this update is 1 November 2026. Expect bigger crowds on free days.

If you plan to see Sforza Castle and the Museo del Novecento, the Tourist Museum Card costs €20 and covers one entry to each of six civic museums over three days. With two museums at €10 each, it only saves money if you add a third.

Plan by time available

Time	What to see
Half a day	Duomo with rooftop, Galleria, San Satiro, then La Scala Museum
One day	Morning: Duomo, Galleria, La Scala. Afternoon: Last Supper (booked), Sant’Ambrogio, Sforza Castle. Evening: Navigli
Two days	Day one as above. Day two: Brera gallery and district, Porta Nuova, Monumental Cemetery, then Fondazione Prada or San Siro
Three days	Add a day trip to Lake Como: direct trains reach Varenna in 64 to 65 minutes from Milano Centrale

If you land on a Monday, start with the Duomo, the La Scala Museum, Fondazione Prada or San Siro, all open that day. Save the Last Supper, Brera, the castle museums and the Novecento for Tuesday onward.

Is a guided tour worth it in Milan?

Most of the sights above are easy to see on your own. A guide helps in two places: at the Last Supper, if official tickets are sold out (see our Last Supper guide), and on a short stopover, when a guided walk links the Duomo, the Galleria and La Scala in one go.

Before you book, check that the listing says which entry tickets are included. Many walking tours only pass the outside of the Duomo and La Scala.