Nine addresses that hold up beyond the Salone del Mobile. For the days when you need a break from installations, queue-induced hunger, or the urge to buy a very good pen.
Bonvini 1909
To get inspired for writing personal notes
A neighbourhood stationery and typography shop since 1909, saved in 2014 by a group of friends who restored it without changing a detail. Three original presses — including a 19th-century platen press and a Heidelberg Stella — still sit in the shop, operational. The shelves carry notebooks, papers, nibs and inks selected with the same care as ever. A gallery space in the adjacent atelier hosts rotating exhibitions on illustration, typography and photography. Monthly workshops on bookbinding, calligraphy and letterpress. One of those places that reminds you what a considered object feels like and sending a written note is a true signo f love and friendship.
Locations: Porta Ticinese · Porta Venezia · Porta Romana
Vasiliki Kantina & Gastronomia
When you are tired of pasta
When the fourth risotto of the week starts to feel like becoming a habit, cross the street into Vasiliki Pierrakea’s Greek wine bar and gastronomy. Over 150 labels from Santorini, the Peloponnese, Crete and Attica line the shelves, guided by an expert sommelier. The menu runs on mezes — small, shareable plates built for conversation. The room, designed by Joy Herro, is spare and genuine, with a ceiling fresco of Persephone and Demeter overhead and a gastronomia counter for taking something home.
Address Via Clusone 6, Milano
Instagram: @vasilikikantina
Bivio Milano
When looking for affordable vintage
Milan’s original fashion resale, opened in 2013 by San Francisco native Hilary Belle Walker. Four stores across Porta Ticinese, Porta Venezia and Porta Romana — each one stocked with thousands of pieces selected individually, with new arrivals daily. The range runs from a 1980s Gucci jacket to last season’s most-wanted sweatshirt, found this Loro Piana hat market down from 3600 K to 320 Euro. Let´s do it.
Locations Porta Ticinese · Porta Venezia · Porta Romana
Instagram: @biviomilano
Villa Necchi Campiglio
A design pilgrimage that holds year-round
Built between 1932 and 1935 by Piero Portaluppi for the Necchi Campiglio family, this is one of the great houses of Italian rationalism — and one of the most quietly thrilling things you can do in Milan. A private pool (the first in the city), internal elevator, intercom and gym were radical luxuries at the time. Today it belongs to FAI and holds collections by De Chirico, Morandi, Sironi, Canaletto and Tiepolo alongside its original furnishings. The garden alone is worth the visit. Known internationally as the setting for Luca Guadagnino’s film I Am Love.
Address Via Mozart 14
Instagram: @fondoambiente
La Mary
Because fine bakery is also a treat for the eye
Opened in December 2025 in a residential corner of Milan that needed exactly this. French-inspired, with Senegalese-Milanese soul: the three founders include pastry chef Laye Dia and photographer Denise Bonenti,a perfect combination who shaped the space’s identity. The result is a room of considered design — English illustrations, a South African architect — and a counter of monoporzioni, cheesecakes, caramel-passion fruit tarts and serious viennoiserie. Croissants farcite al momento, pain suisse, cruffin, cinnamon rolls. Lunchtime quiche. Afternoon tea. The name is a nod to Marie Antoinette, whose famous remark about brioche the menu takes literally.
Address Via Marcona 70, Milano
Instagram: @lamarymilano
Installation during Salone del Mobile 2026
Giardino delle Arti — ARKET × Laila Gohar
For a ride on the current installation with Gohar World
The most joyful installation of Salone 2026, Artist Laila Gohar has taken an antique working carousel — originally from Wiesbaden, passed down through generations of the Degli Innocenti family — and replaced its figures with oversized fruits and vegetables. Radishes, pears, aubergines, figs: solid, recognisable forms that turn slowly in a public garden near Porta Venezia. The installation marks Gohar’s debut ready-to-wear collection with ARKET. Open to all, but visit the Giardini pubblici Indro Montanelli, right next door, with the GAM (Galleria d’Arte Moderna) and the PAC pavilion on the same stretch of Via Palestro as the installation might be gone by the 25th of April.
Instagram: @arketofficial · @goharworld
Raw Milano
If you are tired of overly designed mid-century, modernist things
The antidote to Salone fatigue. While the rest of the city is busy celebrating the chair and the lamp as cultural monuments, Raw — founded in 2006 by interior designer Paolo Badesco and architect Costantino Affuso — exists in an entirely different register. Part shop, part cabinet de curiosités, the Via Gioberti space (their grand new home since 2024, with high ceilings and soft light through tall windows) is stocked with unrepeatable objects sourced across Europe: salvaged architectural fragments, French and English tableware traditions, ceramics, vintage trunks, maps, things without names. Nothing is mid-century modern. Nothing has been restored. The signs of time are the point. Equal parts bohemian salon and collector’s archive, it is somewhere to wander slowly with no agenda.
Address: Via Vincenzo Gioberti 6, Milano
Instagram: @rawmilano
Indulge
Gelateria Umberto 1934, at Piazza Cinque Giornate 4.
The serving mugs chilled inside the gelato counter make the difference of this Affogato. — creating a hot-cold contrast that is delicious. The signature flavour is the crema Umberto, an egg-enriched custard cream named after the founder, though you can choose any flavour. The gelateria has been open continuously since 1945— founded in 1934, closed during the war, and back ever since.
Instagram: @gelateriaumberto1934
Best Place to Stay
Il Sereno + Baxter Casa sul Lago
Because the lake is the perfect location to explore Milan
An hour from Milan, and a world away from the fair. Il Sereno was the first new hotel built on the shores of Lake Como in decades, designed by Patricia Urquiola in every detail — architecture, suites, uniforms, boats. Forty suites, all facing the water, an infinity pool suspended over the lake, and a Michelin-starred restaurant steps from the shore. Start the morning with breakfast at the water’s edge or a swim before the city wakes up. Then walk next door to Baxter’s Casa sul Lago — an Art Nouveau villa transformed into a living design project, where the creative team reimagines the interiors from scratch every year.
Please make an appointment here,