15 Best Things to Do in Milan, Italy (Including the World’s Smallest Bar)
Milan, Italy in a weekend — and it completely won us over. Join us (and a surprise birthday guest!) for our first time in Milan: the gothic Duomo, a church made of bones, the world's smallest bar, a spa inside a vintage tram, and WAY too much gelato.
We came to Milan for a long weekend not totally sure what to expect — and left convinced it's one of Italy's most underrated city breaks. In this travel vlog we mix the famous icons with the weird, wonderful, hidden-gem stuff: spinning on the lucky bull in the Galleria, a bone-filled chapel most tourists walk right past, the only Starbucks Reserve Roastery in Italy, a 600-year-old castle, an unforgettable cocktail hour in a 4-square-meter bar, and the best food hall in the city. If you're planning a trip to Milan, consider this your honest first-timer's guide.
⏱️ CHAPTERS
00:00 Welcome — a surprise birthday weekend in Milan
02:15 Duomo di Milano (inside Italy's gothic giant)
03:45 Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II + the lucky bull
06:22 San Bernardino alle Ossa — the Bone Church
07:47 Starbucks Reserve Roastery
10:20 Castello Sforzesco
14:18 Backdoor 43 — the World's Smallest Bar
18:22 Gelato at Gelateria La Romana / Lab
20:53 QC Terme — Spa of Wonders
25:34 Mercato Centrale food hall
27:58 Brera District & the Pinacoteca courtyard
29:33 The best tiramisù in Milan
31:02 L.O.V.E. — the "middle finger" statue
31:44 Final thoughts & goodbye Milan
📍 EVERYTHING WE DID (and loved)
- Duomo di Milano — the colossal gothic cathedral begun in 1386
- Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II — Italy's oldest shopping gallery (spin on the bull for luck!)
- San Bernardino alle Ossa — the eerie, beautiful bone chapel
- Starbucks Reserve Roastery — the first Starbucks in Italy, in a 1901 palazzo
- Castello Sforzesco — a 15th-century Sforza castle (look up for the Visconti serpent!)
- Backdoor 43 — billed as the world's smallest bar, on the Navigli canal
- QC Termemilano — an urban spa with a sauna inside a vintage tram
- Mercato Centrale Milano — a food hall inside Milano Centrale station
- Brera District & Pinacoteca di Brera — Milan's bohemian art quarter
- L.O.V.E. by Maurizio Cattelan — the marble "middle finger" outside the stock exchange