Historic Center Walking Tour, Milan

Historic Center Walking Tour (Self Guided), Milan

Immerse yourself in several fascinating centuries’ worth of history and architecture in Milan’s city center. A gorgeous park, elegant palaces and historic houses are just some of the thrilling sights to be seen.

A good place to start is with a saunter down Via Dante, named after the Florentine poet Dante Alighieri. This beautiful pedestrianized street is lined with 18th and 19th-century houses, palaces, shops, cafés and restaurants.

One of the principle highlights of this part of the city is Castello Sforzesco, a 14th-century castle with a turbulent history. It has been demolished and rebuilt on several occasions, and today offers a wonderful window into the past with historical artifacts belonging to the Civici Musei Castello Sforzesco and numerous other museums in the castle complex. Among them is the Egyptian Museum, the Antique Furniture and Wooden Sculpture Museum, the Museum of Ancient Art and the Museum of Musical Instruments. You could easily spend days among the many and varied exhibits.

Behind the castle is Parco Sempione (Simplon Park), a large green space designed in the romantic style of an English garden. Amble along winding paths through beautifully landscaped grounds and open grass areas. Check out the attractive bridge across the central pond and the park’s other structures and monuments.

Climb up to the viewing platform of the Torre Branca, a 354-feet (108-meter) tall tower erected in 1933. Stop by the Arco della Pace, originally built as a Victory Arch for Napoleon in 1807.
How it works: A discovery walk features a route using which you can explore a popular city neighborhood on your own. This walk, along with other self-guided walks in over 1,500 cities, can be found on the app "GPSmyCity: Walks in 1K+ Cities" which can be downloaded from iTunes App Store or Google Play Store to your mobile phone or tablet. The app's built-in GPS navigation functions allow following this walk route with ease. The app works both online and offline, so no data plan is needed when traveling abroad.

Download The GPSmyCity App

Historic Center Walking Tour Map

Guide Name: Historic Center Walking Tour
Guide Location: Italy » Milan
Guide Type: Self-guided Walking Tour (Discovery)
Travel Distance: 2.2 Km or 1.4 Miles
Author: naomi

Walking Tours in Milan, Italy

Create Your Own Walk in Milan

Create Your Own Walk in Milan

Creating your own self-guided walk in Milan is easy and fun. Choose the city attractions that you want to see and a walk route map will be created just for you. You can even set your hotel as the start point of the walk.
Historic Center Walking Tour

Historic Center Walking Tour

Contained within the area once delimited by the medieval walls, the Centro Storico (historic center) of Milan encompasses the city's perhaps most famous landmarks and tourist attractions. Compact in size, the area is easily distinguishable on the map much as walkable. Here you can find almost everything Milan is famous for, in a close proximity to each other.

The best place to start is...  view more

Tour Duration: 2 Hour(s)
Travel Distance: 2.5 Km or 1.6 Miles
Best Shopping Streets and Malls

Best Shopping Streets and Malls

One of the world's four fashion capitals and, as of lately, that of design as well, Milan is renowned internationally as a top shopping destination, where fashion is the second religion. In a rich city such as this, dedicated to art and pleasure, there's no shortage of options for those accustomed to upscale shopping and those in favor of bargains. If you're a fashionista and/or...  view more

Tour Duration: 2 Hour(s)
Travel Distance: 3.4 Km or 2.1 Miles
Leonardo da Vinci's Masterpieces

Leonardo da Vinci's Masterpieces

Over the nearly 20 years that Leonardo da Vinci spent in Milan, the maestro created a number of masterpieces of art, of which the incomparable Last Supper mural in the convent of Santa Maria della Grazie and the innovative ceiling fresco of the Sala delle Asse at the Castello Sforzesco are just a few. If you wish to explore these and other spectacular pieces of art, architecture and technology...  view more

Tour Duration: 1 Hour(s)
Travel Distance: 2.5 Km or 1.6 Miles
Historical Churches Walking Tour

Historical Churches Walking Tour

Milan may be a world fashion capital and a European financial capital, but religion, and "the church" in particular, remain a major part of Milanese life. The city boasts a number of world-class religious buildings that include Milan Cathedral, which is the third largest religious structure in Europe, San Maurizio al Monastero Maggiore, also known as "Sistine Chapel of Milan"...  view more

Tour Duration: 2 Hour(s)
Travel Distance: 3.1 Km or 1.9 Miles
Milan Introduction Walking Tour

Milan Introduction Walking Tour

Recognized as one of the world's four fashion capitals, Milan is also a global hub of design and a key tourist destination. The etymology of the name Milan remains uncertain. One theory holds that the Latin name Mediolanum comes from the Latin words medio (in the middle) and planus (plain).

In 286 the Roman Emperor Diocletian moved the capital of the Western Roman Empire from Rome to...  view more

Tour Duration: 2 Hour(s)
Travel Distance: 3.9 Km or 2.4 Miles

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