The best shopping streets in Milan

Popular: Shopping in the center of Milan

The city center of Milan is usually the first place where people look when they go shopping. And rightfully so, because these culture rich shopping streets have a lot to offer when it comes to popular fashion.

Around the Milan Cathedral you will find a wide variations of shops, museums and places where you can sit down for a cup of coffee. As this is the most popular part of town you will find shops dedicated to revitalize the wardrobe of the casual shopper with the latest trends.

From the center you can find shops in almost any direction. The busiest shopping street in Milan is the Corso Vittorio Emanuele II. Here you will find large warehouses and international fashion chains with popular Italian brands that are well suited for people who want to buy nice fashion for a modest budget.

If you are looking for a drink then you check out the popular pedestrian street Via Dante, which is a street which leads people from the Milan Cathedral to the Sforza Castle. In this street you will find many restaurants to sit down and watch the crowd from while enjoying the beautiful castle in the background. But there are also plenty of shops to stroll through.

The Via Torino is also one of the more popular shopping streets for casual shoppers looking for the main casual clothing stores. A lot of large shopping chains like Zara, Guess and H&M have settled here. And the street is especially well known for it’s excellent choices in female fashion and footwear.

The street Via Torino goes from the Duomo to the south in the direction of Navigli. Via Torino is one of the oldest streets in Milan and thus passes several historical sites like the Temple of San Sebastiano. And if you continue to go south you will pass ancient Roman ruins such as the Columns of San Lorenzo and the remains of the old city wall on the Corso di Porta Ticinese.

High end: Quadrilatero della moda

Milan has high end shopping district called the Quadrilatero della moda, which is Italian for the fashion square. It’s called fashion square for a good reason, because this is where all reputable brands have settled and you will find the top of the bill when it comes to fashion. According to Vogue this is arguably the most important fashion shopping district in the world due to the haute couture being displayed here.

The Quadrilatero della moda encompasses several streets, such as the luxurious Via Monte Napoleone, Via della Spiga, Via Borgospesso, Via Manzoni, Via Sant’Andrea, Via Pietro Verri and the upscale Corso Venezia. And it is located within walking distance of the Cathedral Duomi Di Milano in the north east of the city center.

The most alluring fashion street is the Via Monte Napoleone. If you are looking for inspiration, the latest trends and fashion from some of the biggest flagship stores to be seen in then this place is for you. Fashion designers have set up shop here for people with high expectations, as all major brands like Prada, Hermes, Cartier, Versace, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Armani, Burberry and Ralph Lauren have their own boutique. So if you are looking for matching new shoes, enviable handbags, jewelry or something else then you will find it all here.

Parallel to the Via Monte Napoleone you will find the Via della Spiga, which is home to Moncler, Dolce & Gabbana, Tiffany & Co. and more. The fashion district encompasses these two streets and everything in between.

The Corso Venezia is the east most side of the fashion district. This long street continues the trend with a Stone Island store, a Diesel store and others. As the beautiful name Corso Venezia implies this street is home to several Renaissance and Baroque architectural highlights. You will find several interesting places here, such as the Milan Natural History Museum, the Palazzo Serbelloni and just around the corner you can find the Villa Reale.

Via Manzoni connects Piazza della Scala, the square with the opera house and museums, to the Quadrilatero della moda, the fashion district of Milan. On the street Via Manzoni you will find the the Armani megastore, which is probably one of Meet The Cities favorite stores in the district and certainly a recommended visit.

Popular: Corso Buenos Aires

The Corso Buenos Aires is one of the largest shopping streets in Europe. Here you can shop until you drop, as nowhere else in Europe will you find a higher concentration of clothing stores. So this centuries old shopping street is an excellent destination for people looking for popular fashion for a normal budget. Most of the stores are local Italian and European outlets displaying a certain style of clothing. The stores are quite diverse. There are also brand specific stores such as from United Colors of Benetton, Lacoste, Adidas and the Zara. Although the street mostly focusses on clothing stores there are also food chains where you can get a quick bite if you so desire.

The Corso Buenos Aires is more than a kilometer long and offers plenty of shopping fun on it’s own. But the street actually also transitions into other shopping streets. For example the luxurious Corso Venezia transitions into the Corso Buenos Aires when you walk past the city park called the Indro Montanelli Public Gardens.

Shopping malls in Milan

A lot of shoppers enjoy finding everything their heart desires in one place. And the Milanese know exactly what you mean, as Milan has several large shopping malls and grand department stores to cater these needs.

The most famous one is the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, which is located right next to the Milan cathedral in the heart of the city. This luxurious 19th century shopping mall is said to be one of the first shopping malls in the world. When you look at it’s elegant architecture, with a triumphal arch at the entry, it’s unique glass dome and handmade details on every wall, you will realize it’s also one of the most beautiful shopping malls around.

The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II offers a combination of luxury fashion shops, such as Louis Vuitton, Prada and Swarovski with restaurants and cafes where you can sit down and enjoy the scenery.

La Rinascente is a department store which can be found right next to Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II and the Cathedral of Milan. The La Rinascente in Milan is their flagship department store and it impressed so much it was actually nominated for the best department store in the world.

The ground floor of La Rinascente is dedicated to beauty, so you will find makeup and jewelry products here. As you go up you will find casual and formal fashion for men, pretty much everything for women from branded fashion to nice lingerie. To a floor for kids. On the 7th floor is the food hall, where you can sit down at an Italian restaurant, a sushi bar or simply get a sandwich while enjoying a view of the Milan Cathedral. If the weather is nice you can opt to sit outside on the roof terrace with a warm cup of coffee.

Vintage: The Navigli canal district and Porta Ticinese shopping street

Corso di Porta Ticinese is one of the main shopping streets in Milan for vintage, alternative and boutique shops. Alternative and unique styles are offered in shoe, fashion and jewelry stores that take up the majority of the street, but the street also has numerous places to eat or get a cup of coffee.

As you walk down the street you will find the street goes past several monumental sites, such as the Roman columns of Milan, called the Colonne di San Lorenzo, and the remains of the Medieval Gate of Milan, called the Porta Ticinese Antica. Making it well worth to explore the street at your own pace.

The Corso di Porta Ticinese starts where the shopping street Via Torino ends. And it connects the city center with the romantic Navigli district. You will instantly know when you have arrived in the Navigli district, as at the end of the street you will find a large square called the Piazza Ventiquattro Maggio. In the middle of this square you will find the actual Porta Ticinese, which is an impressively huge white pillared city gate announcing that you have arrived.

The Navigli are the waterways in the romantic Navigli canal district of Milan. Next to the Piazza Ventiquattro Maggio you will find the docks of the Milanese canals. From these docks you can for example take a boat tour through the canals of Milan. From the docks the two canals of Milan, the Naviglio Grande and Naviglio Pavese, go into the southern direction. Everything surrounding the Naviglio Grande and west of the Naviglio Pavese canal is called the Navigli district.

The Naviglio Grande is the oldest canal of the pair, as it can be dated all the way back to 1157. The canals were originally used as a defensive structure and as a means to transport heavy materials towards the center of Milan. The canals allowed Milan to become a popular port city, but they were also used for practical means, such as washing your clothes in the Vicolo dei Lavandai. Today the canals are still used for irrigation, but also form the heart and soul of a unique touristic district.

The Navigli district is the nightlife area of Milan. Next to the canals you will find long streets filled to the brim with Italian restaurants where you can sit down for a bite while enjoying the sunset. Between the restaurants you will also find an abundance of nightlife venues, as the streets are also covered with pubs and cafes and even wine bars. Mixed with the occasional art gallery appealing to your visual senses.

At Meet The Cities we love to stroll past the canals in the evening, enjoying the vibrant atmosphere and then finish the day with the highlight of having a satisfying dinner with your partner as you enjoy the view of the canals. If you had a nice cocktail afterwards you will also be glad to know the trams from this district go until late in the evening.

Vintage: The cultural Brera district

In the north west of the historical center of the city you will find the artistic heart of the city. The first thing that stands out is that the district looks a bit different from the rest of the city, as you will quickly notice the quint architecture of the buildings in the many small and cobbled streets that make up the area.

The Palazzo Brera is one of the main draws of the district, as it contains an observatory, a botanical garden and the art academy which has drawn many artists to the area. It is for a good reason that Milans design week is always prominently present here every year. The most notable art gallery of Milan, the Pinacoteca di Brera, located at the Via Brera, has laid a precedent for art galleries and antique stores to surround the area.

Today you will find many cafe restaurants are creeping into the streets of Brera, such as in my favorite street the Via Fiori Chiari. Which is an excellent place for an affordable meal on a terrace where you can watch the shopping crowd walk by.

On the east side of the Via Fiori Chiari you can continue on north to the Via Brera and the Via Solferino to continue on with your shopping experience. The Brera district is known for it’s one of a kind boutique shops, it’s many showrooms, it’s specialist shops and artisan clothing stores. So it’s a good place to discover fashion outside of the popular main streets of Milan, so you can find some pretty unique items and accessories for a reasonable price that few other people have.