Milan A to Z City Guide

Despite what our growing presence might sugg s and virtually retreat to the city’s great temple of listening, Teatro alla Scala. Begin with Keith Jarrett’s La Scala, improvised there with characteristic fluency across blues, classical, and a touch of un certo non so che. Then turn to Maria Callas in Madama Butterfly, Act II, before concluding with her 1955 performance of ‘Casta Diva’ from Norma, which remains unrivalled.

Our own Music for Bathing playlist was composed to accommodate a lengthy soak—though in the absence of water, it proves equally capable of restoring calm. est, at Aesop, we favour discretion. Instead of raising our voice, we lower it for emphasis. On the street, we announce our proximity via the scent of a hand balm or oil burner blend, rather than the for-hire face of a celebrity. Our signage does not engage in shouting matches with the neighbours. In-store, the volume knob is turned similarly low. When music recedes, conversation advances, and the true opera of the space—the skin care or fragrance consultation—can unfold with the clarity it deserves.

If during Salone del Mobile you find yourself adrift in a chorus of strongly held, shakily formed design opinions, don your finest noise-cancelling headphone

Taste is often the first sense to become fatigued. During Salone del Mobile, the city’s most visible dishes appear everywhere and all at once: Risotto alla Milanese, Costoletta alla Milanese, Ossobuco. They tend to be singular in colour and plural in calories. These are dishes of great merit, of great certainty, and ones that tell you, from across the table, exactly where you are.

Calm, however, is sometimes found in temporary displacement. If in need of a culinary vacation, try: Pho at LaViet Milano, Japanese breakfast at Pan, or Calamansi juice and a joyous serve of Halo-halo at Bulaluhan Sa Milan. Such cosmopolitan palate cleansers allow tastebuds to recover their sensitivity, and appetites to turn their attention back to the city at hand.

Do you ever stop and smell the roses? We do, often—and the Lavender, and the Wild Iris, oh and the Mimosa, too. With Salone del Mobile’s audiences and rising spring temperature, come many blooms, some less pleasant than others. So, pick up a panino from Bar Quadronno, and give your nose a break—the good kind—with a trudge through the green. Parco del Portello is the work of landscape designer Charles Jencks and landscape architect Andreas Kipar, who possibly wanted to see the city without having to be in it. Its central hill is an excellent vantage point from which to look toward the future, or the next gelato. As the name suggests, the Brera Botanical Garden is a seed’s throw from Aesop Brera—it was once the local pharmacy’s supplier of medicinal plants. Close by, Giardino Perego also hides in plain sight.

Tactility is the most reassuring of the senses because it confirms what vision can only suggest. In a week defined by looking, to feel something fully, even briefly, can be quite touching.

At the heart of each Aesop store is a basin, and it is here that our consultants literally take our customers by the hand, in an extended, choreographed handshake in which pace slows. Water runs at a finely tuned temperature—cool in summer, warm in winter. A measured amount of formulation is placed on the back of the hand, and then gently massaged into the skin until absorbed. All the while, aromas whisper themselves into existence. Beyond revealing the skin feel of the product, the demonstration restores awareness of the hands themselves.

In Milan, such feats of dexterity can be experienced in our Brera, Corso Magenta and Milano Cordusio stores.

The eye does its best work when it is not rushed. Milan’s beauty does not present itself outright, it emerges in unassuming fragments: entrance halls, small courtyards, slabs of concrete.

Design festivals tend to make the eye flutter. Attendees are encouraged to move, moth-like, from lamp to lamp, dinner to event to ‘immersive experience’, trying to soak in all that shines while squinting out their fellow aesthetes’ stampede. Suffice to say, at one point during Salone del Mobile, Milan may well feel a little... over-furnished. Should you prefer a less exhausting vision of the city, may we suggest two alternate perspectives:

Firstly, through celluloid. It rains a lot in Michelangelo Antonioni’s La Notte, both meteorologically and emotionally. With spare scenes, gorgeous chiaroscuro cinematography and a handsome Jazz soundtrack by Giorgio Gaslini, it proves incredibly refreshing after a day among the crowds and cushions.

Or alternatively, by rail, precipitous car ride and boat, to nearby Lago di Como. A refreshing reprieve from the city may be found at its swimming spots. Our preferred, away from the crowds: Parco Civico Teresio Olivelli—a few lengths away from Villa Carlotta—where grand staircases and sculptural fountains urge bathers into the waters, the mountains their watchful lifeguards.