12 min
50 min
M1 · M2 · tram 16 · tram 19
5.8 / km²
11
5
522
+5% vs city
Counted from OpenStreetMap and Inside Airbnb (CC BY 4.0)
Staying in Magenta & San Vittore
Magenta is the strip running west from the Duomo along Corso Magenta to Sant'Ambrogio and the old San Vittore prison: patrician palazzi behind gates, Santa Maria delle Grazie with the Last Supper on its refectory wall, the Sant'Ambrogio basilica, and the Cadorna interchange at the top.
It is the best-value central booking in Milan, and the reason is that nothing loud is here. You are ten to fifteen minutes on foot from the Duomo through the Castello park or down Via Meravigli, on M1 and M2, and four minutes from Cadorna where the Malpensa Express leaves. The streets are residential above the ground floor, so it is quiet by 23:00 in a way that Brera and Ticinese are not.
What you trade is street life. Corso Magenta has good bars and a couple of serious restaurants and then it stops - the aperitivo crowd is in Brera or on the Navigli, twenty minutes away, and you will walk or take the metro to it every evening. Book the Last Supper before you book the room: tickets go months out and the room is worth much less without it.
What works
- Santa Maria delle Grazie and the Last Supper are inside the district
- About 12 minutes on foot to the Duomo, and M1 and M2 both stop here
- Cadorna station puts the Malpensa Express at the top of the street
- Quiet after 23:00 - residential streets rather than a bar strip
What does not
- The evening happens elsewhere: Brera and the Navigli are a walk away
- Last Supper tickets sell out months ahead, so the sight is not a given
- Very little that is cheap - this is an expensive residential quarter
- Corso Magenta itself is a busy road with trams and traffic noise
It was said that Bar Magenta coined the now very popular “aperitivo”, and having a drink in here is a classic experience.