the surroundings of Milan for an autumn weekend
From Piedmont to Brescia, the central position of the Lombard capital allows you to enjoy, around Milan, a wide variety of pleasures and landscapes.
Our guide to the surroundings of Milan:
Langhe-Roero and Monferrato, vineyards
The perfect destination for an autumn weekend around Milan: a getaway in the Langhe, the hills forming a landscape registered since 2014 as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A set made up of five wine-growing territories – plus the Grinzane Cavour castle – which are the pride of Piedmont: the Langa de Barolo, where the most famous Piedmontese wines are produced, the hills of Barbaresco, where nebbiolo, the emblematic grape variety of Piedmont, the Nizza Monferrato and Barbera area, kingdom of the Barbera grape variety whose nerve center is the town of Nizza Monferrato, the territory of the sparkling wine Canelli and Asti and the Monferrato degli Infernot, part of Monferrato characterized by infernots, cellars dug under the houses intended for the storage of wine.
A stay in the region would not be complete without a visit to Alba, capital of the white truffle, omnipresent in season (from the end of September to the end of January). Also worth visiting is the Chapel of Barolo, a little fantasy commissioned in 1999 by the Ceretto family from artists Sol LeWitt and David Tremlett. Important barolo producers, art patrons, architecture lovers (you have to visit their estate), the Ceretto are also co-owners, in Alba, of the gastronomic restaurant Piazza Duomo, run by chef Enrico Crippa, the only 3-star in the Piedmont.
Santa Margherita Ligure, seaside resort
Head for the Gulf of Tigullio, where this pretty seaside resort is located that foreigners know less about than its famous neighbor, Portofino. If Milan was at sea, it would be there. Some even call it Santa Margherita Milanese! For more than a century, the Milanese have flocked there in summer, creating traffic jams on the A7. It is there that they are both mocked by the locals and pampered, engines of cars of the economy. In this postcard setting – turquoise sea, palm trees and colorful houses – the rituals are immutable: taste the local red prawns, a focaccia from Fiordiponti or Pinamonti, have a glass of prosecco on the terrace of the Imperial Palace, reach Portofino by the paths that run along the coast, choose a beach (Parragi, Punta Pedale or Giò e Rino) to do nothing at all… Or escape the heat a little in the park of Villa Durazzo.
Mount Isola, lake island
Almost everyone has seen this island, without knowing its name. Almost everyone has seen the yellow floating bridges that the artist Christo installed in 2016 on Lake Iseo: they linked the village of Sulzano to the island of Monte Isola. Attracting over a million and a half visitors, their presence has disturbed the tranquility of this site and, since it rose to fame, Monte Isola is no longer quite the same, lament its lovers … However, outside preferably in season, it retains all its charm with its necklace of typical villages, its area (5 km2) which allows you to go around it on foot or by bike.
On the program: castles, fortresses, churches, palaces, fishermen’s houses, olive trees (and their oil) and freshwater fish (the Soardi family even a bottarga of fish from the lake). From Milan, Lake Iseo is only two hours away by car – unfortunately more than double by train. You must then leave the car when boarding the ferries.