# Staying in Guastalla & Porta Vittoria, Milan: Map & Verdict Verdict: Recommended. Book here without thinking about it. Interactive map: https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-milan/guastalla Every Milan district: https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-milan.md The quiet blocks south-east of the Duomo: the Besana rotunda, the botanical garden and the courthouse. Ten minutes in, and nothing loud in it. Facts: 10 min walk to the Duomo; 50 min to the airport; price €€€; best for couples, quiet, business trips, first-timers; lines M4, tram 9, tram 12, tram 19. Guastalla is the quarter inside the old walls between San Babila and Porta Vittoria: the Guastalla gardens, the Rotonda della Besana, the university hospital, the Palazzo di Giustizia and the streets of nineteenth-century blocks around them. It is central Milan without the shopping crowds, and most visitors never learn it has a name. That anonymity is the reason to book it. The Duomo is a ten-minute walk, Porta Romana's restaurants start at the southern edge, the new M4 line stops twice inside the district, and rooms cost less than the same distance north into Brera or west into Magenta. The Besana rotunda and the botanical garden are two of the few genuinely quiet outdoor places in the centre. The trade is that this is a working district of offices, courts and hospitals. It empties at the weekend, the courthouse blocks are grim to walk past after dark even though nothing happens there, and there is no sight here that anyone flies to Milan for. You are buying ten quiet minutes from the Duomo, which is a good thing to buy and not an exciting one. What works: - About 10 minutes on foot to the Duomo, through streets with no crowds - M4 stops twice inside the district and Porta Vittoria has trains - Cheaper than Brera or Magenta at the same distance from the centre - The Besana rotunda and the botanical garden are quiet and free What does not: - Courts, offices and hospitals - the district empties at weekends - No sight of its own that would draw anybody here - Little open late; dinner means walking to Porta Romana or the centre - The Palazzo di Giustizia blocks are bleak to walk past after dark Hotels in Guastalla & Porta Vittoria: https://www.stay22.com/allez/booking?aid=stayzones&link=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booking.com%2Fsearchresults.html%3Fdest_id%3D781%26dest_type%3Ddistrict%26group_adults%3D2%26no_rooms%3D1 ## Other districts in Milan - [Duomo](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-milan/duomo): Recommended. The whole core inside the old canal ring, not just the cathedral square: the Castello, Sant'Ambrogio and the Colonne di San Lorenzo are all this district. You pay Milan's highest rates and walk to everything. - [Brera](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-milan/brera): Recommended. Ten minutes north of the Duomo, cobbled and low-rise, with the Pinacoteca and the best-looking streets in Milan. It is also the district that fills up loudest on a Friday. - [Magenta & San Vittore](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-milan/magenta-san-vittore): Recommended. Corso Magenta and Sant'Ambrogio, ten minutes west of the Duomo. The Last Supper is in it, and it is the quietest central district in Milan. - [Sarpi & Chinatown](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-milan/sarpi): Mixed. Milan's Chinatown, on a pedestrianised Via Paolo Sarpi fifteen minutes north-west of the Duomo. The best cheap eating in the city, and no sights at all. - [Pagano](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-milan/pagano): Mixed. Corso Vercelli's shopping street and the wealthy blocks behind it, one metro stop past Magenta. Safe, dull, and cheaper than it looks. - [Ticinese](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-milan/ticinese): Recommended. The strip running south from the Colonne di San Lorenzo to the Darsena. Close enough to walk to the Duomo in under twenty minutes, close enough to the canals to skip the taxi home. - [Navigli](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-milan/navigli): Mixed. Two canals lined with bars, and the best evening in Milan if you are out in it rather than asleep above it. Half an hour on foot from the Duomo and short of daytime reasons to be here. - [Porta Romana](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-milan/porta-romana): Recommended. The old Roman gate and the streets behind it, twenty minutes south-east of the Duomo. Where Milanese eat, with Fondazione Prada at the far end. - [Porta Venezia & Corso Buenos Aires](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-milan/porta-venezia): Recommended. A shopping avenue with three metro lines under it and Milan's best value rooms along it. Book the Porta Venezia end; the discount at the Loreto end is the discount for a reason. - [Isola](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-milan/isola): Recommended. A former working-class pocket behind the tracks, now the district under the Bosco Verticale. Good food, real evenings, and a thirty-five-minute walk from anything historic. - [Centrale](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-milan/centrale): Mixed. Milan's densest block of cheap hotels, wrapped around the country's second-busiest station. Two metro lines, every train, and the one part of the centre that people are warned about after dark. - [Loreto](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-milan/loreto): Avoid. The cheap end of Corso Buenos Aires, on an M1/M2 interchange. Wikivoyage names it among the areas that can be unsafe at night, and the rooms are priced accordingly. - [San Siro](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-milan/san-siro): Avoid. Cheap rooms 5 km west of the centre, next to a stadium you will visit once and a racecourse you will not. One metro line, and an hour and a quarter on foot to the Duomo.