With Men’s Fashion Week around the corner and the Winter Olympics edging ever closer, Milan has become a hotbed of energy this season. Exhibitions interrogate the future, new dining rooms set the tone for modern Italian gastronomy, and neighbourhood institutions offer refuge from the crowds. Whether you’re here for the shows, the Games or simply to catch Milan in a rare moment of heightened anticipation, this is the season to experience the city.
1
Book a table at Spiga within the Carlton Milan
Fulvio Pierangelini is not a chef like the others. He doesn’t wear a chef’s jacket but a white-and-blue striped apron, dislikes being called “chef” (he prefers cuoco, the Italian way), and has little patience for the rhetoric of fine dining. What he offers is “normal” cooking in a “normal” restaurant—though his setting happens to be the Rocco Forte hotels and resorts, for which he serves as culinary consultant. In Milan he has just opened Spiga inside the new The Carlton, with a menu that makes your mouth water at first glance. All-Italian, seasonal, indulgent dishes without pretension: tuna tonnato, a light salad of red mullet and caviar, scallops with turnip greens, pumpkin ravioli with truffle, and, inevitably, his signature spaghetti al pomodoro with a secret twist. Pierangelini oversees all the hotel’s food and beverage—from the imaginative breakfast to the bar snacks, where the Roman-style gyoza (carbonara, cacio e pepe) come highly recommended.
2
Try a Reformer Pilates at NOII
The Moscova district in Milan has seen a recent opening in the wellness world inspired by the Japanese culture: a contemporary concept that brings together a series of mindful rituals that doesn’t end at just pilates. Yes, there’s a beautifully designed reformer pilates room with daily group classes (and trust us when we say you’ll get a good workout from it) – but you’ll also be able to take a seat in the tea room, whip out your book and order a selection of teas, matcha latte and, if you feel a little peckish, matcha cheesecake, Daifuku Ichigo (mochi) or our personal favourite, the Matcha e hojicha brownie. WEBSITE
3
A Game of Padel at the Golden Goose Arena
he Golden Goose Arena powered by Atlante reimagines padel as both sport and lifestyle. Opened in October with the city’s creative and sporting elite in attendance, this futuristic hub, designed by Novembre Studio, is a snazzy addition to the city’s fitness world. On court, there are nine pitches indoors and outdoors, including a cinematic Pro Court with LED scoreboard and tracking cameras, alongside vintage-style outdoor courts. But the appeal extends well beyond the game: a wellness café, open-air lounge for aperitivi, and “Ritual Spaces” for high-tech recovery make this a place to play, recharge and socialise. Even fashion finds its moment here, with exclusive Golden Goose activewear available on site. WEBSITE
4
Visit the White Out exhibition at the Triennale
To celebrate the Winter Olympics Milano-Cortina, Milano’s Triennale is showcasing the new exhibition: White Out. Taking its name from the alpine phenomenon in which sky and snow dissolve into a single, disorienting plane of white, this exhibition uses this visual metaphor as a lens through which to examine a changing climate. Here, design, architecture and technology are brought into sharp conversation with the future of skiing, climbing and mountain sport, exploring how innovation might respond to an increasingly fragile environment. . Organised into a series of thematic chapters, prototypes, materials and visionary designs reveal how creativity is already reshaping high-altitude landscapes, while also posing more unsettling questions about sustainability and survival. WEBSITE
5
Sunday Brunch at 10_11 of the portrait hotel
A brief preface: in just a few years, the Portrait has become Milan’s go-to business and society hangout. How the Ferragamos pulled off this small miracle is anyone’s guess, but the fact remains—if you don’t go to the Portrait, you’re not cool. It’s not merely a matter of social signaling: the bar and restaurant are 90 percent Italian, impeccably stylish, making it an ideal observatory of contemporary Milanese lifestyle. Now, to the food. Weekend brunch is a feast: a lavish spread of cured meats, cheeses, filled croissants, savoury tarts, salads of cooked and raw vegetables, fresh produce for made-to-order juices, and desserts (cannoli, cream-filled pastries, tiramisu…). At the table you order hot dishes—such as Italian-style eggs poached in tomato sauce—while from the trolley they prepare drinks (the Bloody Mary is a must) and a cheesecake with your choice of toppings. All of this in a glass-walled dining room overlooking one of the city’s beautiful hidden gardens. WEBSITE
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Aperitivo at Da Silvano vini e cibi al banco
Da Silvano Vini e Cibi al banco is an institution among locals: the kind of place you come to grab a glass of quality wine, munch on some sharing dishes and experience the Milanese movida of the NoLo neighbourhood. A younger sibling of the much-loved Ratanà (still one of the city’s best addresses for traditional Milanese cooking), Da Silvano brings the same respect for ingredients to a more relaxed, bar-side format. The menu is built for sharing and grazing: rich ragù served with bread for mopping every last drop, patatas bravas, comforting lasagne, aubergine parmigiana, and well-chosen boards of cured meats and cheeses. Everything arrives on delightfully mismatched crockery. Wines are also thoughtfully selected, favouring small producers and honest bottles. WEBSITE
7
Museo del Profumo
The Museo del Profumo is the only museum of its kind in Italy and traces the history of fragrance through the intertwined lenses of design, art and myth, with a particular focus on the early 20th century. Part cabinet of curiosities, part design archive, the museum celebrates the golden age of perfumery, when elegance, imagination and craftsmanship defined both the bottle and what lay within. Glass masterpieces by René Lalique, Carlo Scarpa, Julien Viard and Fulvio Bianconi reveal how perfume was once as much a visual object as an olfactory one, while vitrines tell the more secret stories behind legendary scents—most famously the enigmatic birth of Chanel N°5. There are bottles once immortalised by Gabriele d’Annunzio’s lyrical flair, alongside forgotten fragrances whose destinies slipped between the folds of history. WEBSITE