Call it Italy’s next shining moment. Smart patrons of design, architecture, and artful innovation are all whispering the same name: Milan. Home to the hotter-than-ever Salone del Mobile design week—not to mention an exciting new generation of galleries, studios, and high-style hotels—the northern Italian city long-famed for its fashion emerges as VERANDA’s Design Destination of the Year 2026. Which means now is exactly the time to plan a style-minded foray to Milan—complete with shopping its showrooms, galleries, hidden emporiums of everything from frocks to passementerie to antiquarian books.
But one of the joys of Milan is that she holds her treasures closely—not on full display like sister cities like Rome and Venice. Milan is a city of slow, delightful discovery: So how to begin? With the help of insiders, of course: gallerist, collector, and patron Nina Yashar and interior designers Paolo Moschino and Philip Vergeylen (with savvy hotel intel from luxury travel expert Jack Ezon) weigh in on their favorite spots for shopping, exploring, staying, eating, and gaining inspiration from historic buildings and museums. Get ready to explore VERANDA’s Design Destination of the Year arm-in-arm with the finest guides in town.
Furnishings & Art
Courtesy of Nilufar Gallery
Fashion & Accessories
Courtesy of 10 Corso Como
More Must-Visit Shops
Courtesy of Reading Room
Where to Stay
Courtesy of Portrait Milano
Plan Your Visit
Busà Photography//Getty Images
Courtesy of Nina Yasher and Paolo Moschino Design Studio
Meet the Experts
A pioneering tastemaker, Nina Yashar came to Milan as a child with her family, celebrated merchants of antique carpets and precious textiles. Working with her father at first, she launched her own business dealing in antique and 19th-century French carpets at age 21 but was drawn increasingly to vintage design and contemporary works. She founded her famed gallery, Nilufar, in 1979, which expanded and moved to Via della Spiga in the heart of Milan’s fashion district a decade later. Her deep support of Salone del Mobile inspired another expansion: acquiring a warehouse space that became Nilufar Depot, a forward-thinking showroom that’s become a magnet for interior designers and international clients.
The timeless sophistication of London-based Paolo Moschino Design Studio—from its thrilling interior design to exclusive collections of lighting, furniture, wallpaper, fabrics, cushions, accessories, and passementerie—springs from the collaboration of partners Paolo Moschino and Philip Vergeylen since the studio’s founding in 1995. Their work with Sir Rocco Forte and Olga Polizzi’s Rocco Forte Hotels has yielded a pair of spotlight-stealing openings in Milan: Rocco Forte House, an exquisite 19th-century Milanese palazzo opened in 2024, and The Carlton, the grand-yet-serene reimagining of a midcentury hotel building on Via della Spiga, in early 2026.
Courtesy of Nilufar Gallery
Nina Yashar’s pioneering gallery of high-design furniture, lighting, and art is where every design-loving visitor should begin. Since 1979 from this gallery on the Via della Spiga in Brera, Yashar has exemplified, not to mention influenced, the deep design thinking of Milan, drawing together furniture masterworks from esteemed vintage designers such as Ico Parisi, Gabriella Crespi, and James Mont and contemporary talents on the rise. An equally pioneering voice in Salone del Mobile, Yashar is Milan’s most trusted expert for collectors, institutions, and design enthusiasts. Via della Spiga, 32
Courtesy of Simone Furiosi/Nilufar Depot
Not resting on her laurels, Yashar expanded in 2015 with a second space: She collaborated with architect Massimiliano Locatelli to convert an industrial building on Viale Vincenzo Lancetti into a monumental stage for theatrical and immersive exhibitions from all aesthetic and design eras. Past shows have included tributes to midcentury Brazilian architect/designers Lina Bo Bardi and Giancarlo Palanti to a solo exhibition curating contemporary pieces from Objects of Common Interest founders Eleni Petaloti and Leonidas Trampoukis. She has also launched Nilufar Edition, her exclusive in-house collection that brings her deep sense of design evolution together with the high-end traditional craftsmanship exemplified by Italy’s Renaissance workshops. Viale Vincenzo Lancetti, 34
Courtesy of Andrea Ferrari/Dimore Gallery
When design and architecture studio Dimorestudio founders Emiliano Salci and Britt Moran converted the second floor of a 19th-century palazzo in 2014, they imagined a private apartment for themselves. But designers won’t be held back by convention, so the pair turned their planned home into a six-room gallery of midcentury and contemporary pieces from Italy and beyond. More to love at the Gallery: a collection of their own designs—furniture, lighting, rugs, and objects—under the brand Dimoremilano. Via Solferino, 11
Courtesy of Alessandro Zambianchi/R+V
“Go for the floors alone.” This is how Philip Vergeylen tees up one of his favorite galleries (one of two that they worked with on The Carlton): art dealers Edmondo di Robilant and Marco Voena’s gallery that opened on Via della Spiga in 2009. (It joined the original circa-2004 R+V in London; spaces in St. Moritz, Paris, and New York followed). “The way they have decorated the gallery is spectacular,” Vergeylen says. “There’s like 10 square meters of wood in one pattern in one room, 20 square meters in another pattern in another. And it’s a mishmash of different patterns—sometimes the 16th century, sometimes the 19th century—but the whole! The total! I’ve never seen that.” R+V specializes in European Old Masters and 20th-century art from Italy and the United States, but Vergeylen says what’s on the walls in this case is secondary. “I can’t tell you which artists they may show, which is okay. For me it’s almost irrelevant.” Via della Spiga, 1
Courtesy of Michele Alberto Sereni/BUILDING, Milan
Specializing in contemporary art and photography since 2017, Moshe Tabibnia’s always-evolving space in the center of Milan is one of Yashar’s favorites for its museum-like approach to research (the elegantly restored 20th-century building includes an extensive research library on the fourth floor, which is called the beating heart of the gallery). Insider tip: Visit on weekday mornings for a quieter experience, Yashar says, and travel on foot due to limited parking. Via Monte di Pietà, 23
Salone del Mobile
Top Neighborhoods to Hit
Courtesy of 10 Corso Como
Nina Yashar loves the curatorial eye at this landmark complex founded as a bookstore and gallery by publisher (and gallerist) Carla Sozzani in 1991. Find works of art, fashion, music, design, cuisine, and culture. “The fashion is a heady mix of luxury and emerging fashion designers,” Yashar says, adding this bit of advice: “Take your time exploring. It’s like a gallery where every corner holds a surprise.” Corso Como, 10
At the top of Nina Yashar’s list is this contemporary and luxury fashion boutique co-founded in 1999 by Antonia Giacinti and Maurizio Purificato, which opulently occupies the landmark, Neoclassical Palazzo Cagnola in the Brera district. (The pair opened a second store that highlights emerging international designers in Portrait Milano’s former 16th-century Catholic seminary.) “The morning is the best time to visit,” Yashar says, “when it’s calm.” Via Casoni, 5 and Via Sant’ Andrea, 10
Courtesy of Mercerie Guffanti dal 1859
Paolo Moschino and Philip Vergeylen get almost as excited talking about this historic haberdashery as they do about The Carlton, their latest design project. “There’s at least a million buttons!” says Vergeylen about the shop’s collection to service the fashion trades: buttons, yes, but also passementerie, lace, fashion accessories, plus swimwear and lingerie. “It’s like walking back in time, and their collection of buttons is second to none,” says Vergeylen. “How does that old woman who runs it know where all those buttons are?” Moschino asks. “It’s unbelievable,” says Vergeylen. “She knows every single button. And she’s not old. She’s younger than me!” Corso di Porta Romana, 7
Breaking for Coffee, Lunch, and Dinner
Courtesy of Reading Room
Yashar makes time for this tiny gem of a cultural hub that carries magazines only, and in this case one that largely focuses on photography, art, fashion, design, and music—a Milanese cultural mix if ever there was one. Reading Room is a breathtaking new embrace, especially for visiting Americans, of the art and pleasures of reading a magazine and looks to evolve what role they play in the future. The white, minimalist space opened by Francesca Spiller in 2018 in the Corvetto District (an area favored by young creatives) offers more than 250 titles in the artful blend of topics above, but mixes in travel, cooking, literature, nature, and erotica. “I love its quiet, inspiring atmosphere,” Yashar says. “Set aside time to browse and linger.” Via Mincio, 10
When Yashar needs a gift, quick, she heads straight for this boutique’s Corso Monforte location for “elegant gifts, niche perfumes, and grooming items.” That curation of gifts is emblematic of the Mazzolari’s family perfume business, which began with a late-19th-century barber shop that was reinvented and expanded headily by Augusto Mazzolari beginning in the 1960s. “I visit for its thoughtful curation and beautiful packaging,” she says. “It’s perfect for a quick, sophisticated gift stop.” Corso Monforte, 2
Courtesy of Augusto Betiula
“I don’t need to tell you to shop at Rossetti for a nice loafer; you can also buy those in New York,” says Vergeylen, who prefers, with Moschino, to discuss the oldest bookstore in Italy and one of their most treasured haunts. “Everything is piled up left, right, and center,” Vergeylen says of the intimate collection of art, design, architecture, and photography books in Centro’s exquisite Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. (The shop’s origins lie in the early 18th century, with printer Antonio Secondo Bocca, who spawned a family print and book business; Libreria Bocca has specialized in art texts, monographs, and catalogs since 2013.) The staff, they say, is knowledgeable and affable in equal, delightful measure. “And they can find everything! How they can find a book is a bit like the Merceria!” says Vergeylen. “For me, it’s also the smell when you walk in,” adds Moschino. “That smell of a bookshop is something that the new bookshops have lost. They don’t have it.” Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II
Yes, a few selective grooming products are for sale, but why Vergeylen and Moschino love Eredi Zucca is because, as Vergeylen says, “It is the most glamorous barbershop in the world. You walk in and you have this feeling of a gentleman’s club, but very, very, very luxurious. They shave, they cut your hair, but all in such an over-the-top luxurious design, which is why I want to mention it.” Vergeylen respects the virtuoso summoning of heritage inside the flagship shop’s interiors: a collaboration with British designer John Whelan, founder of The Guild of Saint Luke and a patron saint of reimagining new spaces with assembled and layered elements of the decorative arts. “But book well in advance,” adds Moschino. “They only take two people at a time, so it takes a long time to get in. But we highly recommend it.” Via Bigli, 6
The City’s Best Museums
The Historic Villa You Shouldn’t Miss
Courtesy of The Carlton
For the Icon Hunter
Touted by luxury travel insiders as the most exciting arrival in Milan of late, Paolo Moschino and Philip Vergeylen’s virtuoso transformation of a faded midcentury hotel on Via della Spiga for Rocco Forte Hotels opened in early 2026. The Carlton is a celebration of Milan’s sophisticated DNA that is not only a design showcase but that turned practically overnight into the place in Milan to meet, stay, and be seen.
Courtesy of Rocco Forte House Milan
For Living Like a Milanese
Because who doesn’t want to live in an intimate apartment in a 19th-century palazzo in the midst of Milan? Rocco Forte House Milan is also a demonstration of the range of Moschino and Vergeylen’s design work: They reimagined this sublime gem on Via Manzoni for Rocco Forte in 2024.
Courtesy of Portrait Milano
For the Style Seeker
Another stunning restoration, The Portrait Milano is Michele Bönan’s vividly colored reimagining of a 16th-century seminary for Ferragamo’s Lungarno Collection, opened in 2024. Its colonnaded Piazza is also a superb stroll-and-shop destination.
Courtesy of Getty Images
Italian cities are notoriously crowded over the summer, but no matter for the design crowd—the best festivals and events fall in the beautiful, and mild, shoulder seasons. Visit in spring or fall to catch the city at its finest.
Miart & Milan Art Week: April 13–19, 2026
Milan Design Week/Salone del Mobile: April 20–26, 2026
Milan Arch Week: October 2026
What to Pack
Style and Market Director Rachael Rummel has ideas for how to travel Milan in style. Here, her carefully selected essentials for looks that match the fashionable energy of the city. Just leave a little room in your suitcase—you’re sure you’ll be coming back with a treasure or two.
Products, Courtesy of Brands
Getting Around
To plan the perfect shopping trip, consult this customized map of our experts’ favorite shops and stays.
Tracey Minkin, an award-winning writer and editor for more than 30 years, is a contributing editor at VERANDA. With deep reporting and far-ranging expertise in the arts, culture, and travel, she covers a wide range of stories for VERANDA, from luxury travel and high craft to the worlds of restoration, design, gardening, jewelry, and watches. She is also a keen chronicler of her stories through her own photography and videos, which frequently appear in VERANDA’s and other brands’ social media feeds. She lives in New York’s Hudson Valley, where she co-authored an art and antiques-focused guidebook for WILDSAM in 2021.