Activities in Milan + the Lakes Region

The white-and-wood design store sells sleek housewares (bright orange showerheads; stainless-steel wall lights).

The boutique stocks quirky styles.

The company offers boating services on Lake Como.

A treasure trove for vintage Gucci bags and other Italian designer goods, in the trendy Porta Ticinese district.

The 49-acre gardens just three miles west of Ventimiglia on the French- Italian border was built by Thomas Hanbury, a wealthy Englishman who made his

Perhaps the finest example of 17th-century Italian Baroque garden art. When seen from the town of Stresa, the island looks like a giant ship: the Borr

The century-old shop has unveiled a futuristic Design Supermarket with a whimsical collection of stylish tech toys, tableware, and more by the likes o

An affordable designer outlet.

This exceptional publisher of design books runs a shop and art gallery. Look for titles by Enzo Mari and Bruno Munari.

The most expensive cocktail in Milan can be found at Nottingham Forest just outside Porta Monforte. At €3,500, the diamond cocktail is thankfully the

Inside a colonnaded 16th-century palace, you'll find Mannerist frescoes by Giulio Romano, a pupil of Raphael's.

Little seems to have changed in this coffee and cake shop on Via Santa Maria alla Porta since opening in 1824. Baristas still wear white shirts under

An emporium of all things gastronomic, including white truffles from Alba, 40 single-origin coffees, and 3,000 wines.

Rossana Orlandi took a 19th-century tie factory in the Magenta District and converted it into one of the premier venues for interior design. Fueled by

When it comes to opera, there’s no more respectable venue than “La Scala,” located a block north of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II shopping mall. O

Balbianello is owned and maintained by the Fondo Ambiente Italiano—the Italian National Trust. In addition to the gardens, a magnificent 18th-century

In May the garden is aglow with azaleas and rhododendrons. A Moorish pavilion placed right at the water’s edge, a well-manicured allée of pollarded sy