The 19 best things to do in Milan
Steps away from the gothic-style Duomo is La Scala, the country's most-famous opera house where Bellini, Rossini and Verdi premiered their works. A big plus for tourists is that Milan's relatively compact size means the centre can easily be explored on foot. Wander unplanned in the city's narrow cobbled streets and you'll discover a vibrant cosmopolitan city with plenty of charm and character.
All our recommendations below have been hand selected and tested by our resident destination expert to help you discover the best things to do in Milan. Find out more below, or for more inspiration, see our guides to the city's best hotels, restaurants, bars and shopping.
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Best for art
Museo del Novecento
Admire 20th-century works of art alongside panoramic views
The collection of the wonderful Museo del Novecento begins with Italian Futurism, before moving on to the Avant-garde, with works by Kandinsky, Picasso and Modigliani. The top floor displays works by Lucio Fontana, while a glass bridge connects to the Palazzo Reale, housing art from the 1960s to 1990s.
Insider tip: Sala Fontana's floor-to-ceiling windows offer sublime views of the Duomo – it's a striking setting, with regular music performances held here periodically too. Check the website for details.
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The Independent
40 minutes ago
- The Independent
Our flight was cancelled because of the software glitch – can we get compensation?
Q Our flight was delayed and should have left before Wednesday's air traffic control failure. Then the failure happened, and our flight was subsequently cancelled. Are we entitled to financial compensation? Clare B A You were among around 25,000 passengers whose flights were cancelled on Wednesday and Thursday as a result of the 'software glitch' at Nats, the national air traffic control service. The event temporarily closed the skies above southeast England and led to dozens of diversions and delays. In peak summer, there is little slack in the system. With planes, pilots and passengers out of position, cancellations swiftly began. When a flight is cancelled, the default assumption in UK and European air passengers' rights rules is that airlines are obliged to pay compensation of between £220 and £520, depending on the length of the trip. But if the carrier can show that ' extraordinary circumstances ' were responsible, it dodges that liability. The general principle: if the cause was beyond the airline's control – such as bad weather, a security incident or airspace closure – there is no need to pay out. Your case is unusual because you should have been safely clear of the UK before the system failed. You can put in a claim with the airline, arguing that a timely departure would have avoided problems. Expect the claim to be declined on the grounds that it would only have been a modest delay had the system not failed. You could then go to alternative dispute resolution, a free service for passengers. If this fails, you could go to Money Claim Service – or at least write a letter before action stating your intention to do so, giving the airline a chance to settle. The next step, actually making a claim, requires you to pay a fee; I am not sure I would advise you to go ahead. Whatever the cause of a cancellation, the airline is responsible for providing accommodation and meals until it can get you to your destination. If you had to fix things yourself, send the itemised evidence to the airline. There should be no issue in getting the money back, as long as you leave any alcoholic drinks out of the claim. Q You wrote about British Airways wanting to charge £900 extra for switching you to an earlier flight. I believe that if you turn up early and there are seats available, it's a no-brainer for any airline to let you on. So why doesn't BA allow it? Mary C A I find myself in the unusual position of defending a British Airways policy that did not work out in my favour last Friday night. These were the circumstances: I was flying from London Heathrow to Istanbul and unexpectedly arrived at the airport in time to catch the earlier flight. Seats were available, but they were in business class only. I was told I could fly on it, but only after paying the difference between what I had paid for an economy ticket (£266) and the prevailing business fare (£1,203). I politely declined. I can come up with any number of arguments for why it would have been in BA's interests to allow me on board, after perhaps taking £50 from me and upgrading an elite member of the British Airways Club to business class in order to make room for me. The airline would have gained extra loyalty at zero cost. BA would also have avoided potential extra expense, had the later flight 'gone tech', requiring alternative flights and hotel accommodation, and the payment of £350 in compensation. Yet there are some powerful arguments against allowing those on cheaper economy tickets to switch to earlier flights. The first is this: tickets on a flight that gets you to Istanbul close to 1am are always going to be cheaper than those promising an early evening arrival. If free switches were permitted, then passengers would game the system, booking a later flight in the hope of changing to an earlier one. Next, flexibility has a value – and airlines prefer to reserve this facility for passengers who have paid more for their trips. If the opportunity to switch for little or no cost were granted to everyone, that benefit would be eroded. Finally, and most practically: this was all happening at Heathrow within an hour of departure. Given all the demanding dimensions of dispatching an aircraft, catering to the whims of a cheapskate passenger are low on the list of priorities. I hope I have presented BA's argument reasonably. Q What can you tell me about Vueling? Also, would you say that flying with them is worth the risk? I've read some pretty awful reviews. But when I was looking for flights to Rome in September, Vueling popped up as the carrier on the British Airways site. Nick C A Vueling, based in Barcelona, is Spain's leading budget airline. It has an interesting route network. As well as operating lots of flights between London (Heathrow and Gatwick) and the usual suspects of Barcelona, Malaga, Paris and Rome, it serves smaller Spanish cities including the northern trio of Bilbao, Oviedo and Santiago. Vueling has a useful link from Gatwick to Florence, which I prefer to Pisa as a gateway to Tuscany (except when poor weather scuppers the landing). The airline connects Cardiff, Edinburgh and Manchester with Spanish destinations. And if you ever need to visit west Africa, change planes in Barcelona and continue on Vueling to either Banjul in Gambia or Dakar in Senegal. I have flown frequently on Vueling, most recently from Paris to Gatwick, and have another flight booked in September from Gatwick to Barcelona. I haven't studied reviews, but my conclusion is this: Vueling is fine from an operational point of view, with no significant advantages or disadvantages compared with easyJet, Wizz Air or indeed British Airways on shorthaul. They all fly Airbus A320 series aircraft with much the same seat configuration. Indeed, the 'layout of passenger accommodation' (or LOPA, as it is known in the industry) is identical on Vueling and British Airways, which are sister airlines. The main difference is that BA keeps the middle seat empty in business class. The crew are friendly and professional, and Vueling has a good safety record. It also has an unusual but welcome policy of tackling overbooking by inviting passengers on heavily booked flights to switch to another departure in return for a voucher. One aspect at which Vueling does not perform well: customer service when things go wrong, with cancellations or long delays. A fair number of people have contacted me to say that getting compensation – or recompense when they have had to pay for hotels – proves difficult. But if Vueling has the best schedule and price for your trip, there is no reason to avoid the airline. Q My 11-year-old nephew is obsessed with aviation. What can you recommend in the way of flight-related websites and aircraft attractions that would appeal to him? Sean K A I use the excellent free Flightradar24 service professionally all the time – to check flight cancellations and delays across major airports, for example. But it is also a mesmerising website/app for anyone interested in aviation. Right now, I am looking in real time at flights coming in from Corfu, Zurich and Ho Chi Minh City to London Heathrow. You can filter for passenger, cargo, military and business jets, as well as the elusive 'lighter-than-air' category. For destination dreaming, your nephew might like to try the Great Circle Mapper website. You tap in the airport codes separated by a hyphen (eg LHR-SFO) and it will instantly show the straightest line ('Great Circle route') between London Heathrow and San Francisco International. Not only is it an excellent way to see how that UK-to-California route goes well into the Arctic – he can also start to learn all those tricky airport codes, such as ORD for Chicago and AGP for Malaga. In terms of UK aviation museums, for mainly military aircraft, I recommend the Imperial War Museum outpost at Duxford, near Cambridge. For civil aviation, the Runway Visitor Park in Manchester is excellent. It is adjacent to the taxiways at the UK's third-busiest airport, and also has a Concorde – the closest anyone these days can get to the supersonic era. Around the world, the best aviation museum I have been to is Aeroscopia Toulouse, on the edge of the airport in southwest France. It can be combined easily with the fascinating Airbus factory tour, which I hope will fuel an interest in your nephew in working in the world of international connectivity.
Telegraph
40 minutes ago
- Telegraph
The 10 most annoying things British tourists do on holiday
No nudity, no beers on the street, and please keep the noise down: these are just some of the new laws greeting British visitors to Portofino this summer. Fed up with tourists' rowdy antics, the Italian town has pledged to impose fines of up to €500 (£435) on those who don't behave – and it's not alone. In July, the Spanish city of Malaga announced its own rules, pleading visitors to 'be respectful of heritage', 'be kind to workers', and not 'attract attention' in public. It's all common sense, surely? Not according to those who actually live in Europe's tourism hotspots. We asked them to name tourists ' bad, mad and disgusting behaviours, and the list is lengthy – with many saying that British visitors are the worst offenders. From tiny bugbears to 'culture-killing' actions, read on to discover the capers that earn us our rock-bottom reputation. Getting naked – and randy 'In winter, Malia is a sleepy little town, but as soon as the British arrive, the place is an unholy mess, with girls in thongs strutting down the sidewalk, guys with bare torsos and people vomiting – or even having sex – outside the bars,' says travel writer Heidi Fuller-Love, who has lived in Crete for 15 years. Malia is notorious for its popularity with young British holidaymakers, as immortalised in cringe-tastic comedy The Inbetweeners Movie. '[I wish Britons] understood how offensive this behaviour is to Greeks for whom nudity is a no-no, and whose society is based on the respect of others.' Being the worst type of drunk British tourists' notorious drinking habits are spilling out of the resorts and into the cities, says Paris resident Sara. 'Inebriated young Britons become boisterous, vulgar and often bother women in a really unpleasant way. In Paris, they gravitate to areas like Montmartre, Pigalle or the Latin Quarter, thus annoying not just the locals but also fellow visitors.' There is a small mercy, says Sara: 'because they are in central Paris, at least they won't drink and drive'. Hogging the golf course Not only are Britons usually terrible golfers, but we monopolise the course unashamedly, says Martin Rosenberg, founder of travel booking site and a resident of Belek in Antalya, Turkey, which has several championship courses. 'They act as if they've bought the entire golf course for their week, and their pace of play is so slow. If they're in a group of two or three, they couldn't possibly be paired up with anyone else to make a four-ball – but there's no way they're paying extra to block off the spare places. After 20 years I have less and less to do with Brits on holiday as I find them rude, arrogant and selfish.' Rushing the sights – and forgetting the rest Stop trying to squeeze Venice into just one day, says Italy travel writer Demi Anter – it's destroying the city. 'The magic of Venice is not to be found when rushing through the 'sights' as a daytripper,' she insists. 'Overtourism is killing the city's culture: in 2009 activists staged a funeral for Venice, marking the drop in the island's population from 170,000 in the fifties to under 60,000 that year. It's now around 50,000. Don't avoid visiting, but take a week or more, and spend money locally.' Complaining it's 'not like home' 'You'd never hear a French, Dutch or German tourist say 'Where's the fish and chip shop?', or 'Where can a man get a decent pint around here?' – but these are the most common things a Brit will comment on in Spain,' says TK Smith, a Briton who has lived in the country for more than 20 years. 'That's why places like Fuengirola and Benalmadena look more like Clacton-on-Sea than the Costa del Sol. It appears the most horrifying thing to a British tourist is that a destination has its own history, culture, food and personality.' Embarrassing ourselves on 'beer bikes' Popular with stag and hen groups, 'beer bikes' are basically city tours on a giant pedal-powered vehicle, with an open bar at its heart. 'They clog up Lisbon's cycle paths and come along one after another,' says Christopher Fitch, author of Wild Cities, who has lived in Lisbon for five years. 'It should be the city's responsibility to ban them as they did in Amsterdam. Either way, it's always British accents that I hear as I'm squeezing my bike past…' Ignoring the local language 'It might sound like a small thing, but in Versailles we have a problem with British tourists disrespecting the local bakery shops,' says resident Jean Cooper. 'They barge in demanding the locals speak English, and it's so frustrating for us because going to the bakery is a big part of our daily lives. A word or two in French can make the interaction a lot better! I just wish they were more respectful.' Staying in rental apartments British travellers commonly eschew hotels for rental properties, says Barcelona journalist Pablo Castaño, but doing so only exacerbates the city's infamous overtourism woes. 'Many rental apartments are illegal and those that are legal are a great problem for the city, because they expel residents from their neighbourhoods and increase housing prices.' If hotels are too expensive, consider a hostel instead – and avoid staying in peak season between May and September. Ordering the wrong type of coffee 'You can spot Brits at an Italian coffee bar because they're the ones hanging around in clusters, waiting to order 'large' cappuccinos – but we only have one size,' says Kenny Dunn. A long-term Rome resident and founder of Eating Europe food tours, he's well-versed in Italy's coffee culture, unlike most Britons. 'When in Rome, don't queue for the barista to take your order: stroll in confidently, and order the right coffee for the time of day at the counter, which means no cappuccino after 11am. After dinner, opt for an espresso – and yes, it's espresso not expresso.' Driving too slowly While speeding on road trips is obviously a no-no, slowing to a snail's pace is a guaranteed way to get locals riled up. 'Tourists drive like they've never seen a bend before,' says Lake District-based travel writer Monique Gadella. 'On a road where I drive 50mph, they do 30mph AND break for every bend – even the most shallow ones. It's so frustrating! If people just let go of the accelerator they'll slow down enough to [take the] corner.'
The Guardian
40 minutes ago
- The Guardian
TV tonight: Sam Clafin and Jeremy Irons star in a swashbuckling new period drama
9pm, U&Drama Sam Claflin and Jeremy Irons star in a new epic adaptation of the swashbuckling story by Alexandre Dumas. Edmond Dantès (Claflin) is a young sailor returning to Marseille to marry love of his life Mércèdes (Ana Girardot). But he has ruffled the feathers of two peers, who conspire to get him locked up in an island prison ('No one leaves there alive'). However, Edmond meets Abbé Faria (Irons) who will help him to escape 15 years later and claim his revenge. HR 6.50pm, BBC Two 'Dah, dah, dah, dahhhh!' Those unmistakable notes open Beethoven's Fifth in this Prom, which is performed by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and conducted by Maxim Emelyanychev. Before that, though, French pianist Alexandre Kantorow – who played at the Paris 2024 Olympics opening ceremony – delivers Saint-Saëns' 'Egyptian' piano concerto. HR 9pm, Sky Documentaries The original Piano Man looks back on a rollercoaster life and career in this two-part profile, which has gained extra poignancy after the 76-year-old's recent brain disorder diagnosis. As well as Joel himself, Springsteen, McCartney, Pink and Nas weigh in on his legacy. Concludes Sunday. Graeme Virtue 9.10pm, BBC One Although this Glasgow-set series (first shown on U&Alibi) frequently teeters into cop show cliche, Nicola Walker's socially awkward detective Annika Strandhed lends it a quirky edge. She's got her work cut out for her as series two begins, with a gnarly drowning video and a victim who was last seen 'pished and mouthy'. Hannah J Davies 9.10pm, Channel 4 Griff Rhys Jones travels from the Atlantic to the Gulf and takes in all the US deep south has to offer en route. First up, in Tennessee he learns how a dam created in the 30s helped to forge the atomic bomb. Then, in Nashville, it's all about the music and dancing. HR 11.35pm, ITV1 Katherine begins doubting Martin – the one person she thought she could rely on, while Eddie claims he's secretly working for her, in the penultimate episode. Meanwhile, there's a tense showdown and a bombshell, before things get really messy. Ali Catterall The Thicket, 9.20am, 6.05pm, Sky Cinema Premiere Peter Dinklage heads up this impressively bleak neo-western, as a bounty hunter on the trail of a kidnapped girl. Ostensibly in the same redemptive vein as The Searchers, it's closer in flinty spirit to something like The Revenant. His high body count decorating the snowy wilderness, Dinklage is as formidable as usual – but almost outmatched by Juliette Lewis as Cut Throat Bill, the misleadingly named varmint he's pursuing. Director Elliott Lester goes in hard on seedy saloon atmospherics and a Darwinian survivalist vibe. Phil Hoad International Rugby Union: Australia v British & Irish Lions, 9.30am, Sky Sports Main Event The final Test from Sydney, with Lions captain Maro Itoje (pictured above) aiming for a 3-0 series win. Test Cricket: England v India, 10.15am, Sky Sports Cricket The third day of the fifth and final Test from the Oval in London. Golf: Women's Open, noon, Sky Sports Golf Day three of the major from Royal Porthcawl. Cycling: Tour de France Femmes, 12.30pm, TNT Sports 1 Stage eight from Chambéry to Saint-François-Longchamp. Racing: Glorious Goodwood, 1pm, ITV1 The final day, featuring the Stewards' Cup at 3.05pm.
