25 min
55 min
M1 · M2 · M4
22.2 / km²
4
6
2,063
City average
Counted from OpenStreetMap and Inside Airbnb (CC BY 4.0)
Mixed after dark
Piazzale Loreto and the last few blocks of Corso Buenos Aires before it are named in Milan's own safety guidance as unpleasant at night. Book south of Lima, towards Porta Venezia, and the problem does not arise.
Staying in Porta Venezia & Corso Buenos Aires
The district is Corso Buenos Aires and the streets either side, running north-east from Porta Venezia to Piazzale Loreto. The corso is one of the longest shopping streets in Europe, which makes it loud and useful in equal measure, and the side streets behind it are quiet nineteenth-century blocks with the cheapest genuinely central hotel rooms in Milan.
Transport is the argument for it. Porta Venezia, Lima and Loreto are M1, Loreto is also M2, and Tricolore at the southern tip is on M4, so Linate, the Duomo and Centrale are all a short ride away. The walk to the Duomo is about twenty-five minutes through the Giardini Pubblici, which is a pleasant way to arrive and not a fast one.
The eating is the other argument: this is where Milan's Eritrean and Ethiopian restaurants are, along with the city's main gay bars around Via Lecco and Porta Venezia. The direction matters, though. Quality falls off as you go north, and Piazzale Loreto at the top of the corso is one of three places Wikivoyage names as unpleasant after dark. Rooms get cheaper towards it, and that is what you are paying less for.
What works
- M1, M2 and M4 all serve the district; the Duomo is seven minutes by metro
- The cheapest three-star rooms with a genuinely central address
- Eritrean, Ethiopian and Middle Eastern kitchens Milan otherwise lacks
- Twenty-five minutes to the Duomo on foot through the Giardini Pubblici
What does not
- Corso Buenos Aires is a six-lane chain-store canyon, not a pretty street
- Rooms facing the corso hear traffic from 07:00; ask for a courtyard
- The northern end towards Loreto is grim and gets grimmer after dark
- Nothing to see in the district itself beyond the shopping
Certain areas near Loreto, the central railway station, and Porto di Mare (Southern end of the yellow metro line) can be unsafe at night.One of the longest shopping streets in Italy and Europe. It is a large avenue, who, at first, is quite old, but the buildings gradually become newer further along.