Christmas time in Milan

I wanted to make a special post specifically dedicated to Christmas decorations in Milan while we are still (more or less) in the spirit of it, because they are absolutely beautiful (in my opinion of course, but I think many other people in the city share it). You can find some decorations in almost every single street, literally, and some of them just look wonderful. Milan is definitely one of the prettiest cities that I have seen with the Christmas decorations!                                                                          

The fanciest decoration is located in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele (if you know this location, you know it had to be here because of how fancy the gallery is on regular days!): it is a huge shopping gallery that has only luxurious shops inside, such as Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Prada, Versace… The Christmas tree there had to be really pretty to match with the gallery, and it is! Swarovski made sure of it. The gallery looks amazing with this tree, I wish they would leave it here all year long (but then that wouldn't be so Christmassy of course).                                                               

Another noticeable Christmas tree is the one that was put up on the Piazza del Duomo, right in front of the Duomo. It’s a really tall one and it makes the piazza really pretty, although I thought it will be more decorated, especially with other colors than just white, like red for example. It still looks great though obviously, whether the background is the Galleria or the Duomo, because when you move around the piazza, you can see it under different angles and so with different backgrounds). It took a few days to put it up and there was a ceremony for the first lighting of the tree (just like for the one in the Galleria).                                                                     

While we are talking about the Piazza del Duomo, there is also a quite big Christmas market there. Small wooden houses are staying here for about a month, selling mostly food, winter clothes and other typical things you can find in Christmas markets all around the Duomo. It's really nice walking around there and the smell of all the food is just sooo good, but it can get really crowded sometimes because it's the main place of the city. You can find another Christmas market in another part of the city, in Piazza Gae Aulenti. This one even has an ice rink to do some ice skating!              

Another really nice spot in the city at this time of the year is the Navigli neighborhood. For Christmas, they put some lights just above the canals and it looks reeeeaaally pretty at night when the lights are reflecting on the main canal. Navigli is always a nice place to go to and walk around, but with these lights it looks even better. I wish these lights could stay all year, and I think it's gonna feel a little empty when they remove them! This is also probably the most photographed place of Milan during this Christmas period, this just proves how pretty it looks.                                               

Then, while wandering around in the city, you can find some other pretty Christmas decoration, like this knot on a building in Via Monte Napoleone. This street is really well decorated since it also has only luxurious shops, their façades look amazing. By taking one of the streets that are perpendicular to Via Montenapoleone, you will end up on Via della Spiga, which also looks beautiful with all the trees and arches made of lights above your head.                                                                                         

Finally, for the most noticeable spots, there is also this message wishing a “Merry Christmas and Next New Year” in front of Arco della Pace. It sounds a little weird but at least the intention was good. I really like the view of the arch with the message in front of it, I think it's a very original way of putting up a Christmas sign.                    

I think Milan is very well decorated for Christmas! I have shown here pictures of what I thought were the most important and the main places with Christmas decorations but there are really many others in all the streets. I loved the atmosphere there was in the city right before Christmas and I think finding decorations in every street helped that. Milan is really pretty at this time of the year and, as I said before, I wish some of these decorations could stay there for longer!                                                        

Photo gallery