Five Days in Milan - Access Milan

Some links on this page are affiliate links. If you book through one, this site may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. It never changes which option we recommend, and the prices below are the same either way.

Standing on the cathedral roof beside a statue, with the flying buttresses alongside — Photograph by Alisa58, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Five days is Milan properly plus two days out of it, which is the right way to use this city: more of Italy is within an hour of here than of anywhere else in the country.

The plan

Days 1–3 — As above.
Day 4 — ⭐ Como — About forty minutes, and ⭐ the train from Cadorna arrives at Como Nord Lago, which is on the waterfront rather than a walk from it. Take the funicular up to Brunate for the view back down the lake, and a boat to Bellagio if the day is long.
Day 4, the alternative — Bergamo — About fifty minutes, then a funicular up to the Città Alta, a walled Venetian hill town that most people only ever see the airport of.
Day 5, morning — The things Milan hides: San Bernardino alle Ossa, five minutes from the Duomo and lined with bones; the Ambrosiana; or the science museum with the hall of machines built from Leonardo’s drawings.
Day 5, afternoon — Whatever you cut short. It is usually the Navigli, or the roof.

The Cortile Ducale inside the castle, brick arcades around a planted courtyard — Photograph by Andrzej Otrębski, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

⚠️ Pavia and its Certosa is the fourth option and is half an hour out — the monastery is a few kilometres beyond the town, so check the bus before you go rather than at the station.

The lake in Parco Sempione with bare spring trees reflected in it — Photograph by Pe-Jo, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

What this plan is built around

Not a list of sights, but the constraints. ⛔ The Last Supper slot is fixed and unmovable — if you have one, the day it falls on is decided and everything else arranges itself around it. ⚠️ Nearly every museum here closes on Monday, including the Castello, the Pinacoteca and the Monumentale, so a Monday goes to churches, streets and canals. ⚠️ Do not put the Duomo terraces and the Last Supper on the same day: they are at opposite ends of the centre, both timed, and a fifteen-minute slot you cannot be late for does not sit well after a queue on a marble roof. And ⚠️ August empties the city around Ferragosto, while April fills every hotel in Lombardy for the Salone.

The painted ceiling above the ossuary, a rococo fresco of figures in cloud — Photograph by G.dallorto, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.5 it

Booking the practical bits

Five days means you will leave the city at least once, and the days that need arranging are still the first and the last. ⚠️ Data matters more here than on a short trip, because the lake and Pavia timetables are the kind you end up checking on a platform.

Other lengths

3 daysThree Days in Milan 2 daysTwo Days in Milan 1 dayOne Day in Milan

Checked on 7 September 2026. Booking windows, admissions and closing days change — confirm before you travel. All sixteen sights, one page each, in Landmarks & Sights.