HOTEL
MILANO SCALA

Despite of the fact that Milan is one of the most famous Italian cities, it is full of wonderful secret corners with a magic atmosphere for citizens, tourists and curious people. Many of them are concentrated in the historical center and Hotel Milano Scala represents an ideal starting point for discovering them. Not only Duomo, La Scala or Galleria Vittorio Emanuele but green oasis, wonderful church and gardens split from smog and chaos. Milan has many secret attractions, and here you can find some of the most suggestive places, so easy to reach from our Hotel.

BRERA BOTANIC GARDEN

Nearby the Hotel, a magical place will amaze you: the Brera Botanic Garden. In the XV century this place belonged to the Jesuites as the private monastery courtyard, only under the Austrian Empire it was transformed by the monk Fulgenzio Vitman in the beautiful garden that we can visit also nowadays.

Entering in the area from via Brera, we can immerge in a fascinating green ambience. Here we find remarkable areas (such as the greenhouse designed in the 19^th century by the great Italian architect Giuseppe Piermarini), more than 300 species of plants, flowerbeds with medical herbs, a vegetable garden and tanks full of flowers and colors shining in the sunny springtime days. 

This place is really unique also because allows people to combine a promenade in the garden with the visit to the magnificent and renowned Brera Academy Art Gallery with its art masterpieces of the greatest Italian painters and sculptors, like Giotto, Mantegna and Raffaello.

 

CHURCH OF SANTA MARIA PRESSO SAN SATIRO

Going towards the center of Milano, in via Torino (Torino street), there are two wonderful churches, the Church of Santa Maria presso San Satiro and the Church of San Bernardino Delle Ossa, one of the most interesting holy building of the whole city. 

The Church of Santa Maria presso San Satiro is a pure Renaissance style magnificent work commissioned by Gian Galeazzo Sforza and later by Ludovico Il Moro, located nearby the Duomo square. This church is really one of a kind because in a small space it gathers wonderful perspectives and naves that have been projected by Donato Bramante,  one of the greatest architects of the XV century. This building was built on the ruins of a more ancient structure of the IX Century, commissioned by Anspertus the Bishop of Milan.

 

CHURCH SAN BERNARDINO ALLE OSSA

One of the most remarkable churches in Milan, the Church of San Bernardino alle Ossa is located between via Larga (Larga street) and piazzetta Santo Stefano (Santo Stefano square).  Ex cemetery and Middle Age building, it has survived to many difficult episodes and certain legends recount that it was made with the skulls and bones of the crusaders, saints, martyrs and many people died in the Big Plague that hit Milan in the XVII Century, so well described in the pages of the Italian literature masterpiece “Promessi sposi” written by the great writer Alessandro Manzoni. The name of this church comes from the walls of the structure are covered by bones and skulls, maintaining the original and extremely peculiar atmosphere. 

 

 

The last stop of this short “tour” is the Gardens of Guastalla. A little but wonderful “natural oasis” realized in the Renaissance era and finished in 1555. When we enter from the side behind of University La Statale, it is possible to find immediately a beautiful small temple that has been accomplished  by the architect Luigi Cagnola; proceeding through the park we can admire a graceful lake, relax on one of the several benches or go around linden trees like ashes, aesculus and hippocastanum. 

 

So it is very easy to discover a “new Milano” from Hotel Milano Scala, keep following our advices!

 

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