The capital of fashion, a name everybody knows from hearsay. The name alone makes an impression on anyone, but does it really deserve that? Is there anything here special enough to stay longer than one or two days? Have a look.
The first moment I arrived in Milan I was honestly shocked at how ordinary, gray and gloomy it was. I put it down to coming back from a fairy tale, from Mallorca, where Milan was meant as nothing more than a short stop on the way home. I pulled myself together fast and tried to enjoy the city, looking for spots that would impress me. In that sense Milan is exactly like the bicycle in the title photo. At first glance an ordinary city bike. And yet there is something about it that catches your eye.
Getting around the city
There are many ways to move around Milan. Several well-developed metro lines are at your disposal, which makes things much easier. Just buy an all-day ticket, about 5 euro. There are trams and buses too, but I had no use for them.
Many places are better walked, going through the sights one after another. That is how you can get from the main square to the gate at the far end, a distance of several metro stops.
Mobile apps helped a lot with getting around and sightseeing, working as private maps with automatic location, and as lists of interesting spots with the distance to each one. I would go for two free ones: “Ulmon Milan” and “Milano offline plan miasta”.
Piazza del Duomo
Start the sightseeing at Piazza del Duomo, the most important place in Milan, where the biggest sights are. There are plenty of interesting spots around it. Just walk, even without a plan.
Right next to the cathedral square stood the huge, glass-roofed Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, linking Piazza della Scala with the cathedral square.
Come back to the cathedral square at night as well. To the right of the cathedral there were big steps. You could sit down there, pull out a bottle of wine and rest for a while, looking at that huge, very beautiful building. One practical tip: buy the wine and the food a bit earlier, because ordinary grocery shops are hard to find on the square. 
The gallery makes just as big an impression. So do the prices in the shops, which were a real bargain :D
A long walk through Milan
Piazza del Duomo is not everything I found in Milan. True, those were the biggest sights, but walking around you run into a few other good spots. It all started with the walk from Piazza del Duomo toward Largo Cairoli, and then straight ahead the whole time. The route was exceptionally simple. You did not even have to remember street names, or the places you passed. Writing this, I helped myself with Google Street View, and I have to admit that traveling like that virtually is quite good fun. 
We walked quickly past the Broletto Cordusio building above, and somebody snapped a photo of me on the way. 
In the end we reached Largo Cairoli and its monument, only 900 meters from Piazza del Duomo, and the odd thing is that the walk felt much longer than that. 
Next came the castle, visible in the background behind me, right past the monument. “Castello Sforzesco” had a beautiful square where you could sit down, have a drink or a smoke, and move on. :D 
The rest of the route (still straight ahead!) went through a long park. Autumn was starting, so it really did look good. One thing puzzles me about myself. I do not know what I was drinking, but all the park photos came out as ordinary as anywhere else. The long walk ended at the “Arco della Pace” monument. 
Does it remind you of another monument? My first thought was the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. One more close-up and it was time to look for a metro station. 
The business district – Porta Nuova
Porta Nuova is the largest business district in Milan, and new office buildings keep going up there. You get there by metro, simply getting off at “Garibaldi FS”, or you can start from the other end, at Repubblica station, where the first thing you see is “Piazza Venticinque Aprile”, in the photo below. 
Walking toward Garibaldi FS along a fairly touristy street, you soon end up next to the business center, with “Garibaldi Tower” and the other buildings. Most of these buildings were finished after 2010, and on Google Street View you can still watch the whole thing going up.
The whole place made a big impression, especially since we got there completely by accident. The towers with real, large trees growing on the balconies turned out to be the most interesting part. I do not know whose idea that was, but it looked excellent.
Milan is special!
Yes, I have to admit it, because Milan has a lot of interesting places, it has its own appeal, and there is something in it that pulls in thousands of tourists. My first reluctance, that ordinariness that hit me at the start, came only from the holiday in Mallorca. A different mood, a different frame of mind, and weather that was much warmer. So I would not try to see several places in one trip, and least of all two of them where the weather differs enormously, to the disadvantage of the second one. Go to Milan, and pair it with Bergamo, where the plane tickets are cheap. For a few hundred PLN you can spend several good days there, filling the time with sightseeing and staying on your feet. Adku recommends it :D
Note: all the photos are mine. If you want to use one, please get in touch. We can start working together.
