Do you remember last month, when we took a stroll through Milan in the wake of Casorati’s new exhibition at Palazzo Reale? I would be amiss if I didn’t follow up with another walk inspired by another, great show, closing this month, so here we are. Are you ready to dive into Art déco echoes of a bygone era?
Art Deco in Milan?
Yeah, I know. Milan’s built identity is often narrated through its Liberty masterpieces, the experimental optimism of Futurism, the ideological mass of Novecento architecture, and the international clarity of Italian modernism. Yet between these well-defined chapters, deco lies as a more elusive layer.
Never codified into a movement, Milanese Art Deco unfolded as a visual undercurrent—less flamboyant than Paris, less doctrinaire than Vienna. It whispered through thresholds, glinted in iron scrollwork, shimmered across mosaic floors, and surfaced in the rhythm of tramlines and department store windows. Deco in Milan was not just a style, but a texture of urban life: sensual, transitional, syncopated.
The show closing doors in Milan was strongly connected to the city, linking with a special opening of the Royal Pavillion in the Central Station. And trust me, Milan is full of art deco jewels, both in plain sight — like the Central Station — and hidden from the main flow.
As I did with Casorati, my tour is organised by walkable itineraries and flows through 5 themes where we’ll try to use all our senses.
The Themes
- The Tactile City: Surfaces and Light in Deco Milan. Art Deco in Milan is not just seen—it’s touched. A city of cool marble thresholds, brushed brass elevator doors, velvet-lined interiors, and frosted glass panels. Surface becomes narrative, and light becomes collaborator: glinting off chandeliers, dulling into golden shadows at dusk, or flickering through tram windows onto terrazzo floors.
- Syncopations: Art Deco as Rhythm. Deco’s visual language is deeply musical—ornamented but ordered, like syncopated jazz or Futurist poetry. Milan’s Deco rhythm plays out in façades, in the stutter-step of balcony shadows, in the repetition of tram tracks, and in the signage of an era that believed in the beauty of movement.
- Glamour and Escape: Art Deco as Desire. Art Deco in Milan embodied dreams of speed, beauty, eroticism, and freedom—especially for women stepping into new social spaces. Think of dressing rooms, mirrors, lingerie boutiques, cafés with glistening glass—fantasy and autonomy wrapped in ornament.
- The Shadow of the Machine: Industrial Elegance. Milan filtered Art Deco through its industrial soul and tempered it with the mechanical: precise geometries, reinforced materials, and a restrained use of ornament. It surfaces in stations, factories, and headquarters where function embraced grace.
- Thresholds and Transitions: The Liminal Deco. Art Deco reaches its most poetic peak when defining in-between spaces: lobbies, staircases, elevator cages, vestibules. In Milan, these are not mere connectors—they are slow thresholds where the ordinary becomes ceremonial, where the public becomes private with all its anxieties and hidden drama. Their design suggests pause, transformation, and entry into another rhythm.
Itinerary 1: Stone, Iron, Silence. A Walk through Milan’s Tactile Core
From Porta Venezia to Via Malpighi, through surfaces that speak and thresholds that listen
This itinerary traces a curated path through Milan’s Quadrilatero del Silenzio and its immediate surroundings—an area where Art Deco, Liberty, and early modernism converge in a quiet choreography of materials. Focused on the themes of The Tactile City and Thresholds and Transitions, the walk invites you to explore architecture not as spectacle, but as experience—something to be felt with your hands, feet, and skin as much as with your eyes. It’s less about grand landmarks and more about moments of contact—where walls feel alive, iron curves like penmanship, and thresholds aren’t crossed, but inhabited.
Length of the Route: 1.8 km (net time by foot: 25 minutes)
Themes touched: The Tactile City (Casa Barelli, Villa Necchi Campiglio, Casa Berri Meregalli in Via Mozart, Casa Berri-Meregalli in Viale Majno, Casa Galimberti), Sincopations (Palazzo Fidia), Thresholds and Transitions (Palazzo della Società Buonarroti-Carpaccio-Giotto and Villa Necchi Campiglio), Glamour and Escape (Villa Necchi Campiglio, Casa Galimberti).
- Casa Barelli (Corso Venezia 7) — Wrought iron rhythm;
- Palazzo Fidia (Via Melegari 2) — Cubist stone in motion
- Villa Necchi Campiglio (Via Mozart 14) — Velvet, marble, quiet luxury
- Casa Berri Meregalli (Via Mozart 21) — Brick and fresco tactility
- Palazzo della Società Buonarroti-Carpaccio-Giotto (Corso Venezia 42–44) — Ceremonial urban threshold
- Palazzo Berri-Meregalli (Viale Majno 42) — Ornament in full bloom
- Casa Galimberti (Via Malpighi 3) — Painted lives, iron lacework
1. Casa Barelli
Where: Corso Venezia 7
Theme: The Tactile City
A transitional gem between Liberty and early Deco, Casa Barelli is a tactile manifesto rising discreetly along Corso Venezia near Piazza San Babila. Designed by Cesare Mazzocchi, its five-level façade weaves together asymmetry, relief, and ornamental ironwork into a rhythmic play of surfaces. Wrought iron dominates the lower levels, introducing a horizontal band that reads as both threshold and ornament, while iron pilasters thread through the second and third floors and punctuate the elevation. Iron balconies and balustrades, each slightly different, create a serial rhythm under the touch of light and weather.
2. Palazzo Fidia
Where: Via Melegari 2, corner of via Mozart
Theme: Syncopations.
Built in 1932 on a project by Aldo Andreani, this is one of Milan’s most expressionist Deco buildings, full of sculptural play. Its façade seems to dance: alternating window depths, cubist volumes, carved decorative frames. A syncopated masterpiece—complex, surprising, full of improvisation. It’s considered one of the most bizarre buildings in the city, and of course I love it.
3. Villa Necchi Campiglio
Where: Via Mozart 14
Theme: The Tactile City, Glamour and Escape, Thresholds and Transitions
Set in a quiet, leafy enclave just off Corso Venezia, Villa Necchi Campiglio is the pinnacle of Milanese Deco domestic refinement—a residence where material becomes atmosphere, and every surface is a decision. Commissioned by the wealthy Necchi family and realised by the beloved Piero Portaluppi, the villa offers a total artwork of surfaces: lithic, metallic, textile, and glass. Light glides across marble floors, lingers on bronze fixtures, and diffuses through etched glass, creating a shifting tactile landscape with every step.
4. First Casa Berri Meregalli
Where: Via Mozart 21
Theme: The Tactile City
Tucked into the elegant quiet of Via Mozart, the first Casa Berri Meregalli is a masterclass in textural orchestration. Designed in 1911 by Giulio Ulisse Arata, the building weaves Liberty softness, eclectic dynamism, and early Deco gravitas into a façade that pulses with material depth. It’s not smoothness that defines it, but grain: from the jagged bugnato rustico of the base to the shifting dimensions of brick and stone above, it invites the eye—and the body—into a terrain of touch. Its layered use of stone and brick, the coarseness of rusticated basework, and the warm rhythm of exposed laterizio give the building a strong material voice—speaking not in line or light alone, but through grain, weight, and surface texture, with the frescoes surrounding the balcony giving a cool break to the touch.
5. Palazzo della Società Buonarroti-Carpaccio-Giotto
Where: corso Venezia, 42-44
Theme: Thresholds and Transitions
An iconic presence along Corso Venezia, the palace is a masterful exercise in architectural transition, conceived by Piero Portaluppi—Milan’s maestro of modern elegance. Completed between 1926 and 1930, the building is a monumental U-shaped structure organized around two symmetrical wings, and it encapsulates the fusion of Secessionist geometry and Art Deco rhythm.
Its central feature is a grand full-height arch: a commanding portal that leads into a covered passageway, creating both a visual and physical threshold between the public city and the semi-private world within. This passage is not merely a corridor—it’s a moment of pause, framed by lesenes, Doric columns, sculptural cornices, and carved stone statuary that elevate the act of entry into a ceremonial experience. The building rises seven stories, with commercial activities at street level, offices on the piano nobile, and luxurious residences above. The top floor opens onto a vast panoramic terrace, a private stage overlooking the city’s green heart.
6. Palazzo Berri-Meregalli
Where: Viale Majno 42, corner with Via Cappuccini
Theme: Syncopations, The Tactile City
Designed by Giulio Ulisse Arata, this 1911 building isn’t Art Deco but I find it forms a fascinating prelude to what will be the full bloom of the style, with its eclectic style and the esoteric rumours surrounding it. Its asymmetrical composition, wrought iron balconies, and stone ornamentation give it a syncopated facade—like a building caught mid-movement by some futurist painter. The repeated arches and detailed stonework foreshadow the Deco vocabulary.
7. Casa Galimberti
Where: Via Malpighi 3, corner with Via Sirtori – Porta Venezia
Theme: Glamour and Escape.
Built in 1903 by Giovanni Battista Bossi, Casa Galimberti is a technically masterwork of Milanese Liberty—but it resonates deeply with Deco sensibilities: the calculated repetition of balconies, the graphic stylisation of floral motifs, and above all, the narrative quality of the facade, which reads like a mural of elegant lives. It celebrates femininity, sensuality, and spectacle—a canvas of painted muses in flowing gowns and languid poses—and the façade stages everyday glamour in full view of the street.
Itinerary 2: A Symphony in Iron
If you’re not in the mood for walking, I’ve got the thing for you: start at Casa Donzelli, a quiet jewel nestled in Via Revere where Vienna Secession lines meet Milanese ironwork, and then hop aboard Tram Line 1, a moving remnant of Milan’s Deco age, direction: Greco. As you ride toward Piazza Cavour, count the 14 stops. Slide through piazza Cairoli, parade in front of La Scala, and salute Montenapoleone to your left.
Feeling adventurous? Hop down and take the underground from Montenapoleone to Stazione Centrale and book a historical train out of here. Bye bye.
Length of the Route: 1.8 km (net time by foot: 10 minutes + 29 minutes by tram)
Themes touched: Syncopations (Casa Donzelli, Tram Line 1), The Tactile City (Casa DonzellI) and The Shadow of the Machine (Tram Line 1, Stazione Centrale, the Historical Train).
- Casa Donzelli — ironwork whispers;
- Tram Line 1 — art deco in motion;
- Stazione Centrale — rhythm and elegance;
- Hop on a Historical Train.
1. Casa Donzelli
Where: Via Revere 7
Theme: Syncopations, The Tactile City
This building, designed in the early 1900s by the same Ulisse Stacchini—who would go on to design the Central Station—is a fine example of the Vienna Secession and shows a more flourished Deco rhythm—three vertical stripes of windows, symmetrical elements on the sides of the central balconies, and sculpted reliefs. The decorative elements are in cast iron, designed by master Alessandro Mazzucotelli, who is very dear to me for family reasons. It’s a quieter, measured beat—like a shift from allegro to andante.
The facade also reads like a woven tapestry of stylised decoration: floral panels, squared rhythms, carved cornices, and the exquisite wrought iron. It’s rough to the eye and to the touch, and gentleness is left to the ironwork.
2. Tracing Tram Line 1
Where: hop on at Arco della Pace, ride toward Piazza Cavour
Theme: Syncopations, The Shadow of the Machine.
This old-style tram (the Carrelli 1504 model from 1928 in iron and wood) is an architectural experience in motion. The tram’s windows frame changing rhythmic patterns—façades, balconies, trees, signage—all flickering past like film frames. Interior details like wood panelling and brass rails echo the Deco love for crafted mechanics.
If you’re not in the mood to take public transportation, there’s also a car in the local QC Thermal station, Piazza Medaglie d’Oro: placed in the outside garden, it hosts a Finnish sauna.
3. Central Station
Where: Piazza Duca d’Aosta
Theme: Syncopations, The Shadow of the Machine.
While built in a transitional style that blends Art Nouveau, Deco, and the political monumentalism of the 20s, its vertical bays, sculptural rhythm, and grand entrances are well-developed and studied for specific effects. Interior elements—like the sequence of ticket halls and signage—reinforce a cinematic progression from the small porch of the entrance, through the grand staircase climbing up, under the entrance gates and then again, opening up to the grand lineup of the 24 tracks.
4. Lomellina Express
Where: from Stazione Centrale
Theme: The Shadow of the Machine.
The Lomellina Express is a vintage train experience organised by Fondazione FS, running through the Lomellina region—a landscape of rice paddies, canals, and historic villages in western Lombardy. It usually departs from Milano Centrale and includes stops in places like Mortara, Vigevano, or Pavia. The train itself (often hauled by a steam locomotive or historic diesel) fits beautifully with the narrative of machine-age elegance and early 20th-century industrial aesthetics. It’s a ride back into Milan’s transport identity. A journey from Milan into the countryside echoes the bourgeois escapism of the 1930s—urban elegance meets rural romance.
Check out the website until the operation lasts.
Itinerary 3: Mirrors, Perfume, and Arcades
Slip into Milan’s theatrical core—where shopping becomes choreography, coffee a ritual, and architecture a mirror of desire. This itinerary glides through spaces born from the city’s early 20th-century longing for modernity and escape. Begin in the hidden elegance of Galleria Mazzini, a passage once scented with patisserie and whispers. Let yourself be drawn into the mirrored mosaic of Camparino, where aperitifs glitter under Liberty flourishes. Cross into La Rinascente, the cathedral of curated desire coined by D’Annunzio, then pause in Piazza del Liberty, where the ghost of Teatro Trianon still lingers beneath new façades. End your promenade in Galleria del Corso, where shopfronts and cinema screens once promised spectacle to all of Milan. This is a path of urban desire performed in stone, light, and glass.
Length of the Route: 1.1 km (net time by foot: 15 minutes, not considering the time for coffee)
Themes touched: Gamour and Escape (Galleria Mazzini, Camparino in Galleria, La Rinascente, former Teatro Trianon in Piazza del Liberty, Galleria del Corso) and Thresholds and Transitions (Galleria Mazzini, Galleria del Corso).
- Galleria Mazzini — Discreet elegance and bourgeois retreat
- Camparino in Galleria — Liberty glamour and aperitif culture
- La Rinascente — Curated desire and consumer theatre
- Piazza del Liberty (former Teatro Trianon) — Faded splendour and theatrical memory
- Galleria del Corso — Popular spectacle and cinematic escape
1. Galleria Mazzini
Where: Connecting Via Mazzini 20 and Via dell’Unione 7
Theme: Thresholds and Transitions
A hidden urban corridor nestled in the heart of Milan, Galleria Mazzini is a whisper of Art Deco elegance, layered with soft Barocchetto flourishes and infused with the muted glamour of interwar bourgeois life. Built between 1925 and 1928, it was originally named Galleria Carlo Alberto, but came to be known as Galleria Motta after the iconic pastry entrepreneur Angelo Motta, who established his atelier and elaborate display windows here. Its polished confectionery beginnings gave way to decades of elegant quietude, continued by the Pasticceria Bindi and maintained through cafés, barbershops, and portinerie that preserve its vintage soul.
2. Bar Camparino
Where: at the corner between Piazza Duomo and Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II
Theme: Glamour and Escape.
Founded in 1915 and remodelled several times, this bar encapsulates early 20th-century Milanese elegance, and it’s an obligatory stop for an aperitif before the theatre. The Liberty-to-Deco transition is evident in its mosaics, counters, and reflective materials. It evokes whispered gossip and discreet admiration.
3. Bonus Stop: La Rinascente
Where: Piazza Duomo, corner with Corso Vittorio Emanuele II
Theme: Glamour and Escape.
While there’s hardly anything deco in this department store, aside from the mirrored hall of perfumes and make-up stalls, it’s worth mentioning that La Rinascente was conceived as a cathedral of consumption—a place where fashion, modernity, and beauty converged into a theatrical experience. Its name was coined by Gabriele D’Annunzio, who envisioned it not as a shop, but as an idea: the rebirth (rinascita) of style, desire, and national elegance after World War I. While the current building was redesigned post-WWII, its philosophy was deeply Deco-adjacent: a total experience, curated and ornamental, offering visual pleasure, self-transformation, and escape to the Milanese bourgeoisie, especially women.
It’s also worth mentioning that La Rinascente is involved in the renovations of what would be another landmark of art deco in Milan for glamour and fashion: the former cinema and theatre Odeon, with its spectacular two historical rooms. The place has been closed for years, but it’s under renovation to become an annexe of the department store, and they’re promising to preserve the original decorations. You can read about it here. Fingers crossed.
4. Former Trianon
Where: Piazza del Liberty, 8
Theme: Glamour and Escape.
Once a symbol of Liberty-style sophistication and urban escapism, the former Teatro Trianon embodied the Milanese joie de vivre of the early 20th century and it’s a fine example of how my city reinvents itself, passing from theatre to hotel and now to headquarters of an insurance company. With its rose-colored interiors, innovative balconies, and underground Pavillon doré, it became a playground for actors, futurists, and fashionable spectators alike. Renamed Mediolanum under the infamous 20s, later bombed in WWII, it ultimately vanished—except for its façade, now reincarnated in the Palazzo della Reale Mutua.
5. Galleria del Corso
Where: connecting Corso Vittorio Emanuele with Piazza Cesare Beccaria
Theme: Glamour and Escape.
This 1930s commercial arcade was developed as the beating heart of Milanese popular glamour—home to shops, beauty salons, and early cinemas. Though it has changed significantly through many ups and downs, its architecture still suggests a world of mirrored interiors, soft lighting, and flânerie.
Out of Town: Officine Meccaniche (OM) / Former Falck Industrial Complex
Where: Sesto San Giovanni
Theme: The Shadow of the Machine.
This industrial archaeology site preserves remnants of Milan’s massive 20th-century machine production hubs. Though partially demolished, portions of industrial sheds, offices, and auxiliary buildings survive—where factory meets façade. A walk through this 1906-born complex becomes a dialogue with ruins, memory, and urban entropy, and the loss of our manufacturing industry.
I like walking through Milan in search of Art Deco because it’s not simply an architectural pursuit—it is an act of attentiveness. Deco in this city does not dominate the skyline or announce itself in textbook flourishes. Instead, it lingers in door handles and vestibules, glimmers in mosaic floors, and pulses in the rhythm of façades seen from the window of a passing tram. It thrives in thresholds, in transitions, in surfaces that catch the light and ask to be touched.
To trace Art Deco here is to discover a Milan that is intimate rather than monumental, elegant rather than opulent, layered rather than loud. It reveals a city that has always balanced industry and ornament, rigor and desire, restraint and invention. A city where the glamour of the everyday lives not in spectacle, but in surfaces smoothed by use, iron curled by craft, glass cut to hold the afternoon sun. Deco in Milan does not tell us what the city was; it shows us how it moved, how it touched, and above all, how it shimmered—quietly, and in transit. And, in my opinion, it still does.
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