Milan

Milan is Italy's city of precision. Fashion, design, finance, opera and restrained architecture give it a sharper rhythm than Rome or Florence, making it a capital of modern European taste.

Milan lies in the Po plain, with the Alps visible to the north on clear days. Its centre radiates from the Piazza del Duomo, dominated by the Gothic cathedral begun in 1386 and completed only in the nineteenth century, and linked by the glass-roofed Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II to the Teatro alla Scala. Behind the restrained facades of its palazzi lie courtyards and gardens that the city does not readily show.

The Quadrilatero della Moda, bounded by Via Montenapoleone, Via della Spiga, Via Manzoni and Corso Venezia, is the heart of Italian fashion. Brera holds its art academy and the Pinacoteca; Santa Maria delle Grazie, Leonardo’s Last Supper; the Navigli, the old canals, much of its evening life. Newer districts such as Porta Nuova and CityLife, and the Fondazione Prada to the south, show Milan’s appetite for contemporary architecture.

Milan’s calendar follows its industries. The Salone del Mobile, the international furniture fair, takes over the city each April with design week; the fashion weeks come in February and September for women’s collections and in January and June for men’s. These are the busiest weeks of the year, when hotels fill early. Spring and autumn are also the most pleasant seasons for the weather.

La Scala opens its season each year on 7 December, the feast of Sant’Ambrogio, the city’s patron. Summer is hot and humid, and in August many Milanese leave for the lakes and the sea, with some shops and restaurants closing. Lake Como, about an hour to the north, makes a natural extension to a stay in any season from spring to autumn.

Milan’s leading hotels stand within walking distance of La Scala and the Duomo. Four Seasons Hotel Milano occupies a fifteenth-century convent on Via Gesù in the Quadrilatero della Moda; Mandarin Oriental, Milan joins four historic buildings near La Scala; Park Hyatt Milano stands beside the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II; and Bulgari Hotel Milano keeps a private garden beside the Brera botanical garden.

LVXVRY books them through Four Seasons Preferred Partner, Mandarin Oriental Fan Club, Hyatt Privé and Marriott STARS & Luminous respectively — at the official hotel rate, with the privileges each programme attaches to the stay. Milan is often combined with a stay on Lake Como, which LVXVRY arranges in the same itinerary.