City Design Guide: Milan

Every April, Milan hosts the biggest trade fair of its kind in the world – responsible for 10 per cent of the country's GDP. Here's a small guide to the City of Design.

It would be impossible to provide a comprehensive guide to Milan, so stuffed is it with wonderful galleries, incredible shops, cafés, museums, bars and palazzi – most of which you can discover yourself. But I have been lucky enough to visit a few times and these are the things I always recommend to the first-time visitor. It’s a drop in the ocean, sure, but what a drop. I once spent an entire afternoon simply wandering in and out of designer stores – not for the shopping, but to cast an eye over the incredible designs of the shops themselves. So, here are the 10 things I would do if I was there for the weekend. These are not in order, by the way.

1 FONDAZIONE PRADA AND BAR LUCE

Dedicated to contemporary art and culture, this is now a must-see for visitors to the city, not least for a glimpse of the fabulous gold tower, but also for the famous Bar Luce, designed by the film director Wes Anderson. Come for the gold, stay for the art, finish with a pistacchio ice cream and a game of Steve …