Is Isola a good area to stay in Milan?

Isola sits north of the railway and the Porta Nuova towers, close enough to have been rebuilt around them and far enough to have kept its own streets. Piazza Minniti and the streets off it hold the concentration of restaurants and bars that the centre has largely priced out, and the crowd in them is Milanese rather than visiting.

It is well placed for a second visit and awkward for a first. The metro station Isola on M5 is inside the district and Porta Garibaldi - M2, M5, the Passante and the fast trains to Turin and Rome - is five minutes south, so the network is excellent. On foot, the Duomo is thirty-five minutes and there is nothing on the way except the tracks.

Rooms cost less than Brera for more space, and the district is quiet on weeknights. Set against that: apart from the Cimitero Monumentale a few streets west, there is nothing here that anyone would call a sight, the Porta Nuova side is a building site more often than not, and the weekend evenings around Piazza Minniti are loud enough to matter if your window faces it.