Milan off the beaten track - an insider's view

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Oscar, the tenant, is a crazy Mussolini fan - and he shows that out in the decoration, as kitsch as you can imagine - married to an Ethiopian, and a great cook with a very straightforward sense of humour. Don't take anything seriously!

You would hardly finish your pasta and a main course (meat or fish), so stay on one course and just pick.

I would recommend:

Reservations are not accepted, so be prepared to wait if you arrive later than 8 PM because they're always booked out.

Sushi, sashimi, chirashi, maki are served with dashi (soup) until 11 PM. Hot courses such as oyakodon, katsudon, tonkatsu, tenpura, various types of udon (noodles) are served until 10 PM.

While this sushi bar is a favourite of the Japanese living in Milan, it plays host to many students, businessmen, and many other people who just want good Japanese cuisine in a relaxed environment.

Closed on Sundays.

It is a small restaurant and pub, with performers from all over the world, from the best known to new talents.

Shows start at 10 PM. There is no entrance fee, but the first drink includes a fee for the performers (first drink is 7-8 euros).

Website: www.scimmie.it

Very crowded until 9 PM, the atmosphere gets more relaxed after dinner, so this café is also valuable to go with a few friends and have a good time at a table.

We call Brera the area of the city roughly delimited by corso Garibaldi - via Ponte Vetero - via Mercatoon the West side, via dell'Orso on the South, via Brera - via Solferino on the East, and bastioni di Porta Nuova North. You can begin your walk from the Moscova underground station and take Corso Garibaldi to the South. The larger streets have plenty of bars and creative shops, with old style and design cafés, and the aroma of fresh bread and focacce coming out of bakeries.

Continuing South, Corso Garibaldichanges its name in via Ponte Vetero, then via Mercato. Take the time to get lost in the narrow streets left and right (via Fiori Chiari, via Fiori Oscuri) and the neighbouring squares visit some of the most beautiful churches in Milan, built in the characteristic red bricks in Romanic style.

Sip an aperitif with oysters and champagne at Da Claudio fish mart, or with live jazz music at Le Trottoir, or in a groovy aperitif bar - Goodfellas.

Via Brera is distinguished with little art shops selling all kinds of colours and canvas - here is located the Accademia di Brera, maybe the nation's most renowned Art academy.

As you walk North, the street becomes larger and opens up into the piazzetta di Brera. Nearby, the Giamaica Café used to be the meeting point for artists and musicians back in the 60's and 70's. You would appreciate visiting the art galleries and antique shops in Via Fiori Chiari just on the left or walk on to Via Solferino.

The area of via Solferino is rather packed with design and fashion shops, up to Largo Treves where you head to via Statuto back to the underground station (Moscova).

The area North of the underground station along Corso Garibaldi, across the square and along Corso Como is one of the hot nightlife spots in Milan.

The castle is very charming in itself, particularly when you enter from the front door and try to imagine the knights and horses lining up in the square court inside.

Besides, there is an almost unknown museum in the castle (the entrance is near the northern gate) that contains many weapons from the middle ages and the Renaissance but, most of all, some rooms with frescoes on the ceilings conceived by Leonardo Da Vinci and the mysterious Pietà Rondanini by Michelangelo Buonarroti.

Michelangelo sculpted three pietà; the most famous is located in the St. Peter's church in Vatican City. The one displayed in this museum is a willingly unfinished masterpiece Michelangelo sculpted in 1563, one year before his death. No other artist has ever worked on marble at 88 years old.

In this essential, dramatic, mature work, the shapes of Jesus and Mary actually seem to come out of the raw stone. While the scene is very well composed, the attention is drawn directly on Mary, looking exhausted by the pain, feeling like she cannot hold Jesus's dead body any longer and will shortly drop it.

Jesus's dead body stands in an innatural posture underlying his death and Mary's desperation.

The entrance to the museum is free.

There are several bars (usually very crowded) now serving aperitif à la Milanaise. This implies a well skilled barman who masters all possible cocktails on earth, and a bar stuffed up with all possible appetizers you may imagine: not just chips and peanuts - cold pasta salad, chicken, vegetables, fried stuffed olives, focacce with tomatoes or jam, salami, different sauces, sausages etc., all for free.

The idea is to find a table and sit and have the waiter bring the drinks; then you are free to go to the bar and help yourself and your travel companions with the appetizers - just grab a plate and fill it up as many times as you like.

The average price for a cocktail ranges from 4 to 5 euros.