Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II is Milan's covered street, a cross-shaped arcade of glass and iron that links Piazza del Duomo with Piazza della Scala. It opened in 1867, when Italy had only recently become a unified country, and its name honours the first king of the new nation. The Milanese call it il salotto, the city's drawing room, and it still works that way: people cut through it on the way to work, meet friends under the dome and stop for coffee in cafés that have served customers for generations.

Mengoni's great design

The architect Giuseppe Mengoni won the competition to design the Galleria and spent more than a decade on the project. His plan creates two glass-roofed streets that cross beneath an octagonal central space, crowned by a dome of glass and iron. Mengoni never saw the work finished: he fell from the scaffolding of the triumphal entrance arch in 1877, the day before its inauguration. The arch facing the Duomo remains the grandest way in, and we like to pause beneath it and look up before walking through.

Mosaics and the bull

The floor of the central octagon carries mosaic coats of arms of four Italian cities: the red cross of Milan, the she-wolf of Rome, the lily of Florence and the bull of Turin. Tradition says that spinning on your heel on the bull's lower body brings good luck, and there is nearly always a small queue doing so. Higher up, the lunettes beneath the dome show allegories of the continents, and the painted and carved decoration continues along the upper storeys, which hold offices, apartments and a hotel.

Historic cafés and shops

Some of the Galleria's businesses are institutions. Camparino, at the Duomo entrance, opened in 1915 and remains the classic place to try Campari at the bar. The first Prada shop opened here in 1913, and the original store still trades under the arcade. A city rule reserves the ground floor for shops that suit the Galleria's prestige, which is why the frontages keep their dark wood, gold lettering and polished brass. For more shopping streets nearby, see our Milan shopping guide.

Above the arcade

A walkway along the rooftops, known as Highline Galleria, lets visitors walk around the base of the dome and look down through the glass into the arcade below. The views over the cathedral spires and the surrounding roofs are a contrast to the climb on the Duomo terraces. Access is by ticket and depends on the weather, so we keep it as an optional extra rather than the main reason to come.

A short visit that fits any day

Because it lies between the Duomo and La Scala, the Galleria appears in almost every central itinerary, including our central Milan walking route. We return at different times: in the morning, when deliveries arrive and waiters set tables; at dusk, when the lamps come on and the glass roof turns dark; and at night, when the arcade glows and the crowds thin. Each visit changes its character. In rain or summer heat, it also works as a sheltered shortcut through the centre.

Our view

Sit down once, even briefly. A coffee in one of the historic cafés is a small ceremony, and watching the Galleria from a table shows how it still functions as a public room rather than a mall. Then walk out the northern end to Piazza della Scala, where the theatre and the statue of Leonardo face each other, and continue towards Brera. The sequence of arcade, square and lanes is Milan at its most elegant.