Palazzo Lombardia

The last few days have been quite busy, but today I finally took the time to go out again and visit new things in Milan. I went to a spot that I found out about only a couple weeks ago and that I immediately wanted to go to: the Belvedere di Palazzo Lombardia, a. k. a a viewing point in the Palazzo Lombardia tower from which you can see more or less all of Milan. The word "Palazzo" is used for big, impressive buildings, and "Lombardia" is the name of the region where Milano is located. The tower is 161 meters high and was inaugurated in January 2010. It was for a moment for the highest skyscraper in Milan, before the Unicredit tower was finished in 2011.

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The Palazzo Lombardia, which includes the high tower that you can see on the picture above, is the complex of buildings in which the seat of the government of the region of Lombardia is located. I had never been there before today because it’s in a part of the city in which I do not go really often and it’s not a major touristic site in Milan (it’s in the “Directional Center of Milan” so you can guess that it’s not a very touristy area). I found out about it on social media, with people going there and sharing pictures of the view and decided I would do the same to spread the word and let people know about it.

The complex is accessible with the metro, using the green line. When you get to the complex, you should look for the entrance of the highest tower. It will probably be the only place where there are some people because everything else will be closed, since the viewing point is only accessible to visitors on Sundays. The architecture of the complex is quite impressive, designed to make some kind of roof made of glass, as you can see on the picture below. It feels huge when you walk under there.

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The employees guided us all the way through the elevators and once we were in there, I was really surprised by the speed of the elevator to go up and down. Going up 39 floors barely took us more than one minute, and to be honest I was not expecting it to be so quick. I had the same feeling as when I am in a plane that’s taking off, when you can feel the pressure in your ears and everything. But well, at least you don’t waste your time in the elevator, which I think is a great thing.

When we arrived at the 39th floor, the view was breathtaking. The walls were only made of glass so we could have an overall and impressive view of the city. The windows are all around the tower so it gives you a view on the city no matter on which side you are. On the windows are also indicated some popular buildings that you can see from where you are standing and how far they actually are, speaking in kilometers. These buildings include the main touristic sites such as the Duomo, Arco della Pace or the Castello Sforzesco, and also even a few mountains from the Alps that you can see over the city. Unfortunately for me, today the weather was foggy and cloudy in Milan, so I could not see all of these buildings, but at the same time it was also gorgeous like this. I guess you can clearly see of all these buildings on a sunny day (and I already want to go back to see that). Anyway, it was great to see the city from above, which is kind of unusual. I really liked the brown / reddish color of most of the houses and buildings in the city.

The place was really not so crowded, even though I went there at 3 pm on a Sunday afternoon. I think not so many people know about this place so if you can, do not hesitate and go there! The view is really wonderful and worth it. Plus you don’t have to climb the stairs so no excuses!

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