Handpicked experience · Milan
Milan, Italy
A cathedral that took six centuries, a gilded statue no building may outgrow without copying her, and canals dug to deliver the marble.
Three connecting routes rather than a single loop
A choice of one or two days of unlimited boarding
An upper deck with nothing between you and the facades
Live bus tracking on your phone, and a connection on board
A hop-on hop-off ticket for Milan valid twenty-four or forty-eight hours, running three routes that between them reach the cathedral, the castle, the canal district and the fashion streets. Open-top double-deckers, with a full loop taking about two hours.
Three routes rather than one means the network covers a wider spread than a single circuit could, and you change between them at shared stops. Ride the whole way round first if you want the shape of the city; after that, use it as transport. Nothing dictates an order, and the stops are close enough together that walking one leg and riding the next is a normal way to use it.
Work on the Duomo began in 1386 and the last gate was not fitted until 1965. Nearly six hundred years, several changes of architectural fashion, and around three and a half thousand statues later, it is the largest church in Italy after St Peter's — and unusually, you can walk about on the roof, among the spires, on terraces that were built to be used.
A gilded Madonna stands on the highest spire, and Milan long held to a convention that nothing in the city should rise above her. When the first tower broke that height in 1958, the developers commissioned a small replica and put it on their own roof rather than argue. Every taller building since has done the same, so the skyline is now dotted with copies, each one an acknowledgement of a rule nobody ever wrote down.
Milan is not on a river, so the marble for the Duomo came down from the lakes on a purpose-built canal network. Blocks bound for the cathedral works travelled exempt from duty, marked with the letters AUF, and the Milanese phrase derived from that mark still means getting something without paying. Leonardo spent years on the lock designs. Two of the canals survive in the south of the city and are now where everyone goes to drink.
The Last Supper is a few minutes from one of the stops, painted on a refectory wall it has never left. Entry runs in fifteen-minute slots for small groups and is booked out weeks or months ahead, so it is not something a bus ticket can get you into on the day.
Validity starts at first use. The upper deck is open, and Milan gets very hot in August and foggy in winter. Cancellation is free up to a day ahead.
Open it to pick a date and work out the price.
What the fare covers, and what to budget for separately.
The practical detail, and the answers people actually ask for.
About two hours if you stay aboard. There are three routes rather than one, and you change between them at the stops they share.
From 1386 until 1965, when the last gate was fitted — close to six hundred years, several changes of architectural fashion and roughly three and a half thousand statues.
Yes. The terraces among the spires were built to be walked on, which is rare for a building of that age and scale. Access is arranged at the cathedral itself.
Because the city held to a convention that nothing should stand above the gilded Madonna on the cathedral. Since 1958 every taller building has carried a replica instead of breaking the rule outright.
They were dug to bring marble down from the lakes for the cathedral works. Blocks for the site travelled exempt from duty under the mark AUF, and Leonardo spent years designing the locks.
No. It sits a few minutes from a stop, but entry is in fifteen-minute slots for small groups, booked weeks or months ahead, and has to be arranged separately.
At first use rather than at purchase, running twenty-four or forty-eight hours continuously from then.