Stopover in Milan

(advice on accommodation by Richard Dury)

1. There are a number of business-type hotels near the Stazione Centrale - but they and the area are pretty dull.

2. An interesting area is Corso Magenta (continuing into Via Meravigli) - it's got little specialist shops, historic buildings, Bar Magenta that was trendy the last time I went there (but since I stopped going, who knows...) and S. Maria Maggiore with Leonardo's Last Supper (you have to book, but if you stay at a nearby hotel they should be able to help to book ahead of arrival; the number for booking yourself is 02/89 42 11 46) - you might think the Last Supper is so familiar that you know it already, but every time I've been to see it, it's been an impressive experience (Nobel Laureate Dario Fo has just come up with a theory that the perspective lines give you the impression that you are floating a few feet above the ground). It's also near the Ambrosiana, which was, I believe the first public art gallery. Note that the Via Meravigli area is quite close to Stazione Cadorna where the Malpensa Express shuttle train arrives/leaves from. In this area there's Hotel S. Marta (Via S. Marta 4). Also Hotel King, Corso Magenta 19. Via S. Marta is not far from Via Spadari and Peck, an amazing Aladin's-cave of a delicatessen. Right next door to Peck is Hotel Spadari.

3. The most monumental and Parisian street in Milan (and perhaps the only bit of modern Milan apart from the inside of the Scala theatre that helps you understand why Stendhal asked to be buried under just his name and 'un milanais') is Corso Venezia: broad pavement and magnificent historic buildings on one side and the park on the other, leading down into the centre. On the trafficked Piazza Oberdan at the end of Corso Venezia is Hotel Promessi Sposi. Nearby in Via Nino Bixio 4/a is the Roxy Hotel (might be worth staying there just for the name).

4. The Brera area behind La Scala and round the main art museum (Brera) is also 'molto tipico', art galleries, cobbled streets, restaurants, Armani's house... On the busy street that marks the limit of the Brera area is Hotel Cavour, Via Fatebenefratelli 21.

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