10 minute read
Milan Sempre (always)
from Milan Special Issue
by est magazine
MILANO SEMPRE
MILAN ALWAYS
OUR CURATED LIST OF PLACES AND SPACES IN MILAN TO VISIT, EAT, DRINK AND BE INSPIRED.
WORDS | Karen McCartney & David Harrison
MANGIARE E BERE
EAT & DRINK
HIGH-STYLE EATERY | RESTAURANT 13.10
Restaurant 13.10 is a new, 25-seat restaurant fitted out by Serena Confalonieri in her colourful and eclectic style.
Via Sabotino, 2, Vimercate MB, Italy
BAR BASSO
Bar Basso has been the most revered Milanese drinking spot for decades. Opened in 1947, it currently lists 500 cocktails on its menu. During MDW, the crowds spill into the opposite square and can number in the hundreds. Open everyday except Tuesday. 9 am to 1:15 am
Via Plinio, 39, Milano, Italy
BARS + STREET FOOD
Via Parlo Sarpi in the Chinatown area, north of Brera in Milan, is a long semi-pedestrian-only street with dozens of hole-inthe-wall-style Asian and Italian restaurants dotted along its length.
The nearby Porta Venezia is a hub for bars and clubs for Milan’s LGBTQI+ community. In Via Lecco, you can find Leccomilano, MONO bar and Red bar. If you venture to the other side of Corso Buenos Aires, you will find some great cocktail places like Eppol and Blanco.
A BEST-KEPT SECRET
Piccola Cucina is a tiny traditional restaurant near Porta Venezia with great Italian fare from black tagliolini, cuttlefish and peas to beer-flavoured roast pork neck and leg of rabbit Ligurian style. Open only in the evenings from 7.30pm. Closed Sundays.
Viale Piave, 17, Milano, Italy
NEW MICHELIN-STAR CHEF AND ROOFTOP WITH CITY VIEWS
Opened in 2022, Horto Restaurant is a fine dining restaurant headed by Michelin-star chef Norbert Neiderkofler, situated near Palazzo Clerici with a beautiful rooftop terrace. The restaurant offers a seven-course menu at 185 euro, three-course at 120 euro and two-course at 90 euro. Drinks on the terrace are possible.
Via S. Protaso, 5, Milano, Italy
DESIGN MEETS PHILANTHROPY
28 POSTI delivers contemporary Mediterranean cuisine in an interior entirely created from recycled materials. Opened in 2013, the building works were carried out by the inmates of the Penitentiary Institute of Bollate. The notfor-profit NGO Liveinslums, partner of the project, started up a carpentry workshop in the prison where inmates built tables, doors and cabinets for the restaurant, designed by Francesco Faccin and made with the contribution of the master cabinetmaker Giuseppe Filippini.
In January 2020, designer Cristina Celestino was invited to create a new interior continuing the restaurant’s core concepts of authenticity, matter, simplicity and origin; using the products of Fornace Brioni and Matteo Brioni. The food is excellent too!
Via Corsico, 1, Milano, Italy
BREAKFAST
Marchesi 1824 is a classic Milanese café. Founded in 1824, there are three locations in Milan but the one situated above Prada in Galleria Vittorio Emmanuelle is easy to get to and offers excellent service, and superb coffee, chocolates and pastries in a sophisticated setting. You can sit and observe all the people passing by through the Galleria’s central cross while sitting in refined surroundings. Well worth the small additional cost over a standard café experience.
Galleria Vittorio Emmanuele II, Milano, Italy
CASA MUSEO BOSCHI DI STEFANO
Casa Museo Boschi Di Stefano is a beautiful home museum that exhibits the art collection of owners Antonio Boschi and Marieda Di Stefano. The art is predominantly Italian modernist works from the 20th Century, providing an interesting insight into the movement. The museum is situated in a Piero Portaluppi building designed in 1929 – a few blocks north of Porta Venezia. The designer Alessandro Mendini lived in the apartment as a student. The museum is generally quiet and free to enter.
Second Floor, Via Giorgio Jan, 15, Milano, Italy
ARTE E DESIGN
ART & DESIGN
TRIENNALE DI MILANO (MILAN DESIGN MUSEUM)
Milan’s design museum is the type of mecca you would expect of a designed-obsessed country.
Founded in 1933, Triennale Di Milano was designed by Giovanni Muzio and hosts multiple exhibitions simultaneously in its grand halls, becoming a key destination each year during Milan Design Week. The permanent design exhibition is vast, with virtually all of the most important design objects of the 20th century on display. Entrance is 12 euro –six euros for students.
Viale Emilio Alemagna, 6, Milano, Italy
FONDAZIONE PRADA
The work of influential architect Rem Koolhaas, Fondazione Prada has resuscitated an uninspiring part of Milan in the city’s east. The amazing contemporary art gallery space is set across seven existing buildings with three new structures, Podium, Cinema and Torre. The venue is the result of the transformation of a distillery dating back to the 1910s.
Largo Isarco, 2, Milano, Italy
ARMANI / SILOS
Situated in Porta Genova, the old garment district of Milan, Armani/ Silos displays more than 600 garments and accessories spread across four floors in a converted former Nestlé granary. In addition to the permanent display of Armani garments from 1980 to the present day, the museum has a changing exhibition programme, with the current exhibition covering the work of fashion photographer Guy Bourdin until August 31 2023.
Via Bergognone, 40, Milano
ARCHITETTURA
ARCHITECTURE
NOSTRA SIGNORA DELLA MISERICORDIA (OUR LADY OF MERCY CHURCH)
This contemporary church from 1956 by Angelo Mangiarotti is an amazing combination of perfectly formed concrete and glass. The glowing white interior is achieved by daylight passing through a white membrane sandwiched between sheets of glass. Recently restored, it is definitely worth the trip from central Milan to Rho (the location of Salone del Mobile) which is the nearest metro. Taxi from there is approximately eight minutes.
Via Conciliazione, 22, Bollate, Milano, Italy
CHIESA DI SAN NICOLAO DELLA FLUE (CHURCH OF SAINT NICHOLAS OF FLÜE)
Designed by Ignazio Gardella, co-founder of influential Italian furniture and lighting brand Azucena, the church of Saint Nicholas of Flüe (1968-69) is an imposing structure based on the shape of an upturned ship hull, using reinforced concrete and copper for the lyrically-shaped roof. The interior displays an impressive futuristic succession of cast concrete arches.
Via Dalmazia, 11, Milano, Italy
CONTEMPORARY PARK: PARCO DELLA PORTELLO
Charles Jencks and landscape architects LAND and Margherita Brianza built Parco della Portello on a 17-acre former industrial site in north-west Milan.
Viale Renato Serra, 31, Milano, Italy
CASA DELLA MEMORIA
Built in 2015 by local architects Baukuh, Casa della Memoria is dedicated to the values of freedom and democracy, paying homage to those who fought against Fascism and highlighting the plight of victims of terrorism in the second half of the 20th century. The building is made from polychrome bricks that depict historical events and is adjacent to Bosco Verticale (Vertical Forest) in Porta Nouva.
Via Federico Confalonieri, 14, Milano, Italy
TEATRO MANZONI
You don’t need to see a film or a play to enjoy this Alziro Bergonzo-designed theatre from 1950. Situated in the Brera district, the marble floors, frescos and circular ticket booths are worth the visit on their own, but the glass ceiling lights in the lobby and arcade-style entrance area are also spectacular.
Via Alessandro Manzoni, 40, Milano, Italy
PALAZZI E VILLE
PALAZZOS & VILLAS
PALAZZO LITTA
The Baroque-era palazzo, also known as the Palazzo Arese-Litta, is often used during Milan Design Week to host events. Designed by Elisa Ossino Studio, Cristina Rubinetterie is a monochromatic and textured space for discovering and testing the latest tap collections.
Corso Magenta, 24, Milano, Italy
VILLA NECCHI
The perennial favourite Villa Necchi is a piece of Piero Portaluppi magic from 1935. The space is beautifully preserved and filled with art, although much is not from the original house. It’s an astounding example of rationalist architecture that delivers rewards and surprises on every visit.
Via Mozart, 14, Milano, Italy
BENESSERE
WELLNESS
QC TERMEMILANO
Set in the ancient walls of Milan’s Roman ruins at Porta Romana, the QC Termemilano presents a series of spa and wellness experiences that are enjoyed by visitors and locals alike. Wander around the gardens, try the bio-sauna in an old tram set in the garden, relax in the heated outdoor pools and then numerous types of sauna and treatment rooms can all be accessed for the day fee of 49 euros.
Piazzale Medaglie D’Oro, 2, Milano, Italy
NUOVI SHOWROOM DI DESIGN
NEW DESIGN SHOWROOMS
BOCCI
Vancouver-based Canadian lighting brand Bocci launched their first permanent home in Milan with an apartment in the area east of Parco Sempione. Their handmade glass lights are showcased in exceptional spaces in Berlin and Vancouver, and this showroom offers a similar level of serene beauty.
Via Lorenzo Mascheroni, 2, Milano, Italy
FAST
Outdoor furniture brand Fast launched its first official flagship store in Milan. The project is a joint venture between architecture and design studio Quincoces-Dragò & Partners and Spotti Milano and interprets the "Living in Nature" philosophy within an urban context.
Via Cesare Battisti, 1, Milano, Italy
GIORGETTI
Giorgetti is a five-level luxury showroom on Milan's premium fashion street Via della Spiga. The showroom is in a seventeenth-century building, though its classic façade is from the nineteenth century.
Via della Spiga, 31, Milano, Italy
UNIFOR
Swiss-German brand Unifor is a serious figure in the high-end office market. It now has a space in Porta Nuova, Milan, created to do justice to their vast catalogue of designs by some of the world's greatest designers, including Michele De Lucchi and Jean Nouvel. Herzog & de Meuron designed the showroom as a flexible meeting and exhibition space.
Viale Pasubio, 15, Milano, Italy
CRISTINA RUBINETTERIE
Designed by Elisa Ossino Studio, Cristina Rubinetterie is a monochromatic and textured space for discovering and testing the latest tap collections.
Via Pontaccio, 8/10, Milano, Italy
PORRO
After decades in Via Durini, the Porro brand, under the creative direction of Piero Lissoni, has moved to a new, larger location where the showroom is sure to be a design destination for years to come.
Via Visconti di Modrone, 29, Milano, Italy
HENGE
Henge has revealed their renovated showroom in via della Spiga. With their distinctive focus on experimental luxury and craft, the showroom reinforces this through the use of exotic materials and interesting forms.
Via della Spiga, 34, Milano, Italy
CAPPELLINI
After years in via Santa Cecilia, Cappellini have moved 250 metres down the road to a generous corner location in via Borgogna. This new central Milan space offers interior and outdoor spaces billed as an immersive journey through the brand’s iconic and contemporary designs.
Via Borgogna, 8, Milano, Italy
