Opened in the spring of 2015, this ode to all things Armani is one of the best fashion museums in the world. Housed in a minimalist concrete building, the four-floor museum is stocked with 600 items, some of which date all the way back to the brand’s founding in 1975.

Located less than a two-hour drive southeast of Milan, in the town Reggio Emilio, this art museum houses the collection amassed by billionaire Achille Maramotti. The founder of Italian fashion label MaxMara, Maramotti acquired contemporary art from the 1960s until his death in 2005. Highlights include works by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Francis Bacon and Lucio Fontana. Admission is free and visitors marvel as much at the space’s impressive architecture as the works of art. Open Thursdays through Sundays

One of the most exciting art institutions in Milan is the foundation started in 1995 by Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli. The envelope-pushing museum opened in a Rem Koolhaus–designed space in an industrial area south of the city in the spring 2015. The transformed former distillery consists of multiple buildings and houses exhibition spaces, as well as a well-stocked bookstore and the Wes Anderson–designed Bar Luce. The Tower houses nine levels, six of which are home to exhibition spaces, while the remaining three are occupied by the 84-seat Restaurant Torre and a panoramic terrace with a rooftop bar.

The foundation boasts a whopping 120,000 square-feet of exhibition space (as a comparison, New York's Whitney measures 220,000 square-feet). Innovative, cutting-edge, accessible and whimsical, the Fondazione is a personal testament to intellectual curiosity and the deep belief in art as communication. As the designer told The Guardian: "I grew up with the idea that art is for everybody and not a matter of private ownership. I wanted to make culture attractive to the young [so that they would see] that it is necessary to your life."

Near the Duomo is the more modern but equally impressive Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, nineteenth-century neoclassical glass-enclosed arcade. It is one of the world’s oldest indoor shopping centers. Along with housing a handful of international luxury boutiques, it’s the home of two ultra-luxe hotels: the Park Hyatt and the Seven Stars Galleria.

A city museum network established in 2008, the Historic House Museums of Milan promote the city's cultural and artistic heritage through the display of the personal collections, objects, paintings, statues, interiors and architecture in private houses. These families, Milan’s patrons of the arts, showcase the city’s private treasures, with each house offering a unique history and personality.

Among the treasures, don't miss:

• Boschi Di Stefano House Museum (Via Giorgio Jan 15), which opened to the public in 2003 and celebrates twentieth century Italian art and design.
• Villa Necchi Campiglio (Via Mozart 14), which played a starring role in the cult film I Am Love. As the New York Times described its 1930s Italian Fascist architecture, “With its marble-trimmed facade and no-nonsense layouts, Villa Necchi was a modernist palate cleanser in a city chock-full of ornate palazzos. It boasted a tennis court, a garage and Milan’s first heated swimming pool. Simply put, it was a gleaming status symbol for Italy’s brave new elite.”
• Museo Poldi Pezzoli (Via Manzoni 12) One of the oldest house museums in Milan, Poldi Pezzoli opened to the public in 1881 and features more than 30 rooms filled with treasures from the Middle Ages to contemporary works. It has fabulous collections of tapestry, paintings, carpets, weapons, jewelry, clocks, furniture, ceramics and more.
• Bagatti Valsecchi Museum (Via Gesu 5 - Via Santa Spirito 10), which celebrates Renaissance architecture and art with a collection amassed by two brothers.
• Casa degli Atellani (Corso Magenta, 65) Here, you can get a glimpse of another grand house as well as the garden containing the vineyard where Leonardo da Vinci planted grapes when he was in Milan painting The Last Supper.

This is the 15^th-century residence where Leonardo da Vinci lived while he painted The Last Supper, which is just across the street. Some of the grandest rooms in the house, including one with frescoes of astrological figures and a paneled grand salon with spectacular rare furniture, can be visited, along with the garden, where vines once planted by da Vinci are once again being cultivated in hopes of reviving his wine. On occasion, Indagare may be able to arrange a tour with the owners and access to additional sections of the house.

Accompanied by an English-speaking guide and a private driver, experience an incredible full-day tour of the region admired by wine lovers around the world: Barolo. The visit focuses on the different techniques used by the local wine-makers, ranging from small to large producers, and from traditional to modern, each with its own style and flavors. Discover two special wineries singled out by the Gambero Rosso guidebook and by wine journalist Robert Parker. Visit one winery in the morning and one in the afternoon, with excursions to the enchanting Piedmontese towns of Barolo, La Morra, Castiglione Falletto, and Monforte d’Alba, where you discover the beautiful local monuments, castles, piazzas, streets, and other marvelous sites. A wine tasting follows each visit. Members can contact our Bookings Team for help organizing custom touring.

Milan is a city full of creative endeavors, most happening behind closed doors. Indagare’s Bookings Team can help organize custom tours, including going behind the scenes of Milan’s biggest fashion houses and designs studios. Members can contact our Bookings Team for help organizing custom touring.

Milan is known as a business center and the capital of Italian fashion but not everyone knows that has an ancient and fascinating history, as well as some of the greatest masterpieces of Italian art. Visit the remarkable monuments and hidden treasures of Milan including Leonardo’s Last Supper, the Sforza Castle, La Scala Opera House, Vittorio Emanuele Gallery, the Duomo, the Brera Museum—with its masterpieces by Mantegna, Raphael, Piero della Francesca and Caravaggio—and Via Montenapoleone, the, glamorous street of the great designer shops and boutiques. Members can contact our Bookings Team for help organizing custom touring.

Getting tickets to see Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper–in a refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie, a Dominican church and convent–is something that must be arranged in advance. (Visitors are limited in time in order to protect the delicate artwork, and tickets sell out months in advance.) Given enough notice, however, most five-star hotels can arrange a VIP tour. Indagare can arrange for tours with advanced tickets as well as private viewings after hours. Members can contact our Bookings Team for help organizing custom touring.

A taste-tempting tour of the northern Italian capital of cuisine! Explore the beautiful, bohemian Brera district as you stop to sample delicious tiramisu and the best coffee in town. Then head to a celebrated Milanese trattoria to discover the secrets of the famous cotoletta alla Milanese. Crown your visit with a taste of cassoeula Milanese, a delectable dish known only to locals who will not admit that it is quite similar to France’s cassoulet, and end with a frothy concoction of coffee, chocolate and milk. Members can contact our Bookings Team for help organizing custom touring.

Milan's design museum, which opened in 2007, hosts temporary exhibitions on Italian modern design, urban planning, architecture, music, media and the arts and houses a permanent collection of Italy's great contemporary design pieces. Located in the Palace of Art building in Parco Sempione, it is a must-stop for design aficionados.

The opening of Milan's Museum of Cultures (Mudec) in the fall of 2015 was overshadowed by drama, as British architect David Chipperfield refused to attend (citing "defects" in the execution of his designs that had been ignored by the city council). The innovative architecture of the building is certainly as much the star of this museum in the Tortona neighborhood as the exhibitions, which, frankly, vary in quality (be sure to check if the changing exhibitions are of interest before venturing here). The design and book store on the ground floor is excellent.

Just steps from the Four Seasons Hotel, this small museum was the passion project of two brothers, Fausto and Giuseppe Bagatti Valsecchi, who used their family fortune to create a special residence in the heart of the city that celebrates Renaissance style, art and artifacts. The family inhabited the mansions until 1974, when they donated their family treasures to the city as a foundation, and in 1994, one section of the houses was opened to the public in its preserved state. Among the remarkable collections are a hall of armour, paintings by Renaissance masters and bedrooms with antique furniture and textiles.

Originally the seat of government in Milan, the 16th-century Palazzo Reale is now a cultural center with rotating art exhibitions.

Plan to spend a few hours at the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan’s most important museum. Masterworks include Raffaello’s Wedding of the Virgin, Piero della Francesca’s Virgin and Child with Saints, and Andrea Mantegna’s Dead Christ. The collections here have a rather illicit provenance: Napoléon ordered many of the best paintings to be seized from churches and private collections throughout northern Italy.

This incredible cultural space features great rotating exhibits, but it is also the permanent home of artist Anselm Kiefer’s The Seven Heavenly Palaces and should be a must-stop on any contemporary art lover's list. There is also an excellent Kids’ Lab to keep the younger set amused.

While founded by the Poldi Pezzoli family in 1881 this museum is part of the Historic House Museums of Milan network, established in 2008 to promote Milan’s cultural and artistic heritage through the display of the personal collections, objects, paintings, statues, interiors and architecture in private houses. These families, Milan’s patrons of the arts, showcase the city’s private treasures, with each house offering a unique history and personality. This museum just off the Golden Rectangle of Fashion is a grand villa dedicated to the noble past of Milan. Indagare members can contact our Bookings Team for help organizing custom touring.

Often overlooked are the churches of San Maurizio al Monastero Maggiore and Santa Maria Presso San Satiro, both walking distance from the Piazza del Duomo. Full of striking sixteenth-century frescoes by Bernardino Luini and Antonio Campi, San Marurizio is attached to what was once the most important Benedictine convent in the city. San Satiro’s interior displays a painted perspective by Bramante, one of art history’s first ever examples of the trompe l’oiel.

The 116-acre park surrounding the Castello Sforzesco is a lovely green space in a city that's often accused of being ugly and grey. During the warm spring, summer and fall months, it is a great spot for walking, biking and taking the kids to the Torre Branca, a steel construction that is not particularly pretty but that boasts great views from the top platform (350 feet high).

This popular cooking lab and event space offers cooking classes for adults and children.

Famed opera house La Scala reopened in 2004 after a three-year, nearly $100 million renovation. To see and hear a performance here is a must for opera lovers.