Springtime Blossoms in Milan

Milan blooms with the arrival of spring: springtime brightens up the city with myriad colors! The warmer weather, the pretty pink of magnolias, the natural design of flowers and trees. Here are three suggestions, three peaceful sites to discover for a wholesome break in the vibrant city.

Park of the Basilicas

Parco delle Basiliche (Source: Comune di Milano)

Not far from the lively district of the historic Navigli, a hot spot of Milanese nightlife, a quiet and intimate park known as Parco delle Basiliche can be found.

Trees such as plums, maples, mulberries and cherry trees, with colors that change with the passing of the seasons, alternate with majestic high-risers, such as beeches, plane trees and elms, which shade large well-kept green lawns and flowerbeds with carpets of multi-colored bloom.

The park also serves as an ideal place for a short relaxing break right where nature joins the architectural might of the two Basilicas: San Lorenzo and Sant'Eustorgio.

Both offer their rears to the park and, in both instances, these are no less fascinating than the façade: one can admire the apses and the older chapels whose outlines make this park one of the most characteristic places in the city.

San Lorenzo is one of Milan's oldest churches, built at the end of the 4th century AD, when Milan was the western capital of the Roman Empire. From the park you can see the chapels, bell towers and turrets, clustering around the huge sixteenth-century dome.

At the southern end of the park is the medieval church of Sant'Eustorgio, with its slender brick bell tower, the tallest in Milan.  You may admire the elegant red and white architectural volume of the Renaissance Portinari Chapel and the cloisters of the Diocesan Museum. 

Vertical Forest and Trees Library

Bosco Verticale (Source: Comune di Milano)

In the innovative Porta Nuova district, flowers can be looked at by raising up your gaze: the award-winning Bosco Verticale double skyscraper offers a different show in each season, with almost 1,000 trees and 20,000 plants displayed on every floor, drawing a new colorful skyline for Milan. And in the shadow of the skyscrapers, the lawn is dotted with thousands of flowers arranged by renowned landscape architects: that's the Biblioteca degli Alberi, a large green space where trees, gardens, ponds with water lilies, meadows, circular grooves and elegant geometric paths integrate with the recently redeveloped urban area.

Bosco Verticale and Biblioteca degli Alberi are two attractions not to be missed in this large pedestrianized area where the design of contemporary architecture is combined with projects of sustainability, from the eco-labelling of buildings to new bicycle lanes.

Magnolias of Piazza Niccolò Tommaseo

Piazza Tommaseo (Source: Comune di Milano)

At the first winds of spring, Piazza Niccolò Tommaseo colors itself with pink and white. The flowers of the photos and of the admiring glances of Milanese and tourists alike are the star magnolias that every year, in early mid-March, even before the appearance of the new green leaves.

One is pervaded by a sense of tranquility through this poetic vision. The square is uncrowded and very close to one of the most well-known and visited places in Milan, the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, with Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper.

The Baroque style bell tower and the scenic façade of the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie peek out from the clouds of pink petals, while the façade of Marcelline Religious School, built at the beginning of the 1900s in the Renaissance style, bring out the bright red of the bricks and the elegance of the terracotta decorations.