• An evening at Milan’s Teatro alla Scala to attend Verdi’s Otello

• Explore Milan’s great art collections with holdings from the sixteenth to twentieth centuries

• Private visits to palaces, a private art gallery & an historic instrument recital hosted by the owners

• Excellent food and wine & an evening in the city’s oldest private members club

• Comfortable 4* hotel located very close to Teatro alla Scala & the Duomo

• Visit the nearby handsome city of Monza

Milan is the financial pulse of Italy and the centre of the country’s mercantile, banking and design traditions. The great Lombard metropolis’ outline history begins with the Romans for whom it became a major city at the centre of an important road network. As the outline of medieval Italy emerged, Milan became an independent duchy under the control of the new Holy Roman Empire. Medieval and renaissance Milan is inextricably linked to the two great princely families who ruled Lombardy as Imperial Dukes, the Visconti and Sforza dynasties. The Visconti dominated affairs in the later medieval period and became major patrons of the arts, creating in Milan a court of unrivalled wealth and beauty. But in 1450 they were replaced by the related Sforza family who continued these traditions until they were expelled by the French in 1498.

For one hundred years the Milanese Court employed an extraordinary range of architects, sculptors, painters, musicians and humanists. The intellectual and artistic world they created can be seen in the mechanics of their patronage via the major works of Leonardo and his contemporaries. These include examples of the flowering of Renaissance architecture in churches like San Satiro by Donato Bramante. Leonardo’s embryonic mind blossomed at Ludovico ‘il Moro’ Sforza’s court, as his innovations in civil and military engineering, sculpture and above all, painting demonstrate. We shall of course admire his Last Supper refectory fresco, the founding image of the High Renaissance, suffused with the ‘sfumato’ atmosphere which is his hallmark. His contemporaries such as Bernardino Luini and Vincenzo Foppa nurtured his influence in design and a softening of line into the sixteenth century as seen in many of the city’s churches and galleries such as the Brera and the Ambrosiana both of which we shall visit.

Our ‘connoisseur’ visit includes connoisseur collections and interiors at the Museo Poldi Pezzoli, the modernist Villa Necchi Campiglia and the eighteenth-century Palazzo Clerici. We shall also enjoy a remarkable level of private access when we visit two fine private collections, formed by a brother and sister, one with gallery-quality works of art, while the other has the finest collection of historic keyboard instruments in private Italian hands - which we shall also enjoy through a recital followed by dinner, hosted by the owners. Milan’s cultural sophistication is for many an evening at Teatro alla Scala which we too shall enjoy during our week in Italy’s most dynamic city.

We end our tour in Monza, a sophisticated small city just to the north of Milan. Here in the early medieval period, Queen Theodolinda of the Lombards maintained a glittering court and a summer residence. The striking Romanesque-Gothic cathedral is complimented by a treasury displaying some of the finest objects from the Kingdom of the Lombards and medieval Italy.

We shall stay in the very well-placed 4* Superior Hotel De La Ville close to the Duomo, Teatro alla Scala and the main shopping districts and within easy reach of most of what we shall see in Milan.

Day 1: Monday 4 January – We fly from Heathrow Terminal 5 to Milan Linate, arriving mid-afternoon.  We transfer to our hotel, the 4* Hotel de La Ville. After some time to settle in we have a group dinner in Milan’s most distinguished private club dating from the mid nineteenth century – water, wine and coffee are included with all group meals.

Day 2: Tuesday 5 January – We begin with an orientation walk and a guided visit to the Duomo, the city’s great Gothic cathedral. After a coffee break, we visit the church of San Satiro, where Bramante was involved as a modifying architect, his contribution baptistry and an extraordinary choir which is a triumph of illusionism. We continue to the distinguished Ambrosiana, both library and picture gallery, the latter of which we shall visit. It has an excellent collection of paintings, including Leonardo’s Portrait of a Musician and his Codex Atlanticus. We pause for a group lunch after which much of the afternoon (dinner not included) will be free. We meet again in the early evening and walk the short distance to Teatro alla Scala. We begin with a private visit backstage followed by a private drinks party at La Scala’s ridotto. We then take our stall seats for tonight’s performance, Verdi’s Otello. It is a short walk to our hotel after the performance.

Day 3: Wednesday 6 January – Following the evening’s opera performance, we make a leisurely start and walk the short distance to visit one of Italy’s great picture galleries the Brera. From its considerable holdings we shall see fine works by Piero della Francesca, Mantegna and Giovanni Bellini. Given we will be in Milan, all the principal Lombard artists from the Renaissance to the nineteenth centuries are also displayed. After lunch (not included), we conclude at the Poldi Pezzoli Museum, the private house of a famous nineteenth century collector, where the rooms are displayed as he left them with notable fine and decorative arts. The evening will be free.

Day 4: Thursday 7 January – This morning we travel by coach to Milan’s finest medieval church, the Basilica di Sant’Ambrogio. Commissioned in the fourth century by Ambrose, the basilica was rebuilt in the twelfth century in an elegant Romanesque style. After a coffee break, we visit Santa Maria della Grazie, Milan’s finest renaissance church, modified by Bramante.  In its former refectory we shall also see Leonardo da Vinci’s iconic Last Supper, justly regarded as the first work of the High Renaissance. We pause for a group lunch and end our day at San Maurizio al Monastero Maggiore, this richly frescoed Benedictine church is the finest work of Bernardino Luini and his contemporaries. We return to the hotel where the evening will be free. 

Day 5: Friday 8 January – This morning we visit by special arrangement the reception rooms of Palazzo Clerici, a lavish former residence upgraded in 1740 with a major fresco cycle by Giovan Battista Tiepolo – the finest of its kind in the city. After a coffee break, we walk the short distance to the veritable Milanese oasis and sophisticated Villa Necchi-Campiglia. Its collection of early twentieth century furniture and paintings are complemented by eighteenth century decorative arts and paintings, ably run by FAI, Italy’s ‘National Trust’. Lunch is not included today and much of the afternoon will be free for private explorations.  In the late afternoon we shall be the guests of brother and sister Signora Fernanda Giulini and Dott. Vittorio Giulini at their adjacent Milanese homes. We shall view Mrs Giulini’s astonishing collection of art and historic psalteries, spinets, harpsichords and pianoforti. Whilst admiring this remarkable collection, there will be a private recital. Afterwards, we shall be guided by Dott. Giulini around his collection of art in a truly private setting. We conclude this memorable evening with our final dinner with our hosts.  

Day 6: Saturday 9 January – On our final day we make the short journey northwards to Monza. After a coffee break on arrival, we visit a fourteenth century Cathedral, built over an earlier sixth century church and palace commissioned by Theodolinda, Queen of the Lombards. A chapel containing her tomb was completely frescoed in the mid-1400s by the local Zavatari Brothers. The cathedral treasury contains several remarkable objects from the seventh century which belonged to her. Following a final festive lunch and a little free time, we make the short journey to Milan Linate Airport for the early evening flight to London Heathrow Terminal 5.

Price £3450 Price without flights £3280 Deposit £495 per person Single Supplement £565 (Double for Sole Use)

Hotel 5 nights with breakfast at 4* Hotel De La Ville, Milan

Flights British Airways

Outward: BA572 Depart London Heathrow (Terminal 5) 1240 arrive Milan Linate 1545

Return:    BA575 Milan Linate 1850 arrive London Heathrow (Terminal 5) 1955

Price includes 2 dinners & 3 lunches with wine, water & coffee, all local transfers, entry fees & gratuities, City tax, services of James Hill, local guides, a stall seat at Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, drinks prior to the opera and an opera programme

Not included Travel to/from Heathrow, 3 dinners & 2 lunches

Please note our tours generally involve a significant amount of standing and walking, sometimes across uneven ground, or over cobbled streets, or up and down steps and inclines. We do not have an upper age limit for participants, but we require you to have a level of fitness which does not affect other participants' enjoyment of the tour. Please also note that many palaces, gardens, villas, museums and galleries have limited seating and perhaps do not have lifts. You should be able to walk at a reasonable pace and/or stand for at least twenty minutes without aid or requiring a rest. If you are in any doubt, please do contact us for advice on the tour’s suitability for you.