Enjoy Milan in August

In August, Milan is not as crowded as it is usually. The few people that stay in the city enjoy collecting atypical milanese situations: It took me 10 minutes to cross Corso Buenos Aires, check, Melchiorre Gioia was empty, check, I found a seat on the Green metro line, check.

Don’t worry: despite the empty streets, you will find something to do more than just wandering around air conditioned museum halls.

August in Milan: music, film and culture

Exhibitions, concerts and screenings: the Milanese summer tries its best to satisfy tourists and citizens.

Let’s start with the cultural events scheduled for August 2015:

• Recently opened, the MUDEC – the Museum of Cultures designed by David Chipperfield – accommodates up to August, 30th the exhibition Africa. The Land of the Spirits that fills the museum rooms with objects, music and colors belonging to the black continent cultural and religious tradition.
• The Serial Classics exhibition will occupy a part of the Prada Foundation until August 24th : the exhibition focuses on the ambivalent relationship between originality and imitation in the Roman art.
• The Hangar Bicocca treasures up to August 23rd Double Blind & Around, the first Italian exhibition dedicated to Juan Munoz: anthropomorphic sculptures hang from the ceiling, sprout from the floor and take up dark spaces, creating an architectural space in which the viewer becomes an active part.
• This is not an exhibition, but a cultural walk: for ten euros, you can walk on the roof of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, from 09.00 to 23.00, thanks to two elevators situated in Via Silvio Pellico 2. The walk is 250 meters long and has some corners that are home to sections of a museum dedicated to the history of Milan.

For movie lovers, the outdoor cinema AriAnteo is back until September, 30th.

This year, soundtracks and special effects are lightening three spaces up: the Arena Civica, the Incoronata Cloister and, for the very first time, the Metropolitan Market of Porta Genova.

Those willing to find a soundtrack for their evenings have nothing to fear: Milan in summer is full of open spaces where music is played and beer is drank. Or ice tea, as in the case of the Estathé Market Sound, the music event that takes place at the Mercati Generali in via Lombroso 54. There is a huge list of concerts, one among the many is the Gogol Bordello’s on August 27th .

Another space dedicated to music is the Carroponte: once train factory, it hosts today jazz musicians, and both international and Italian bands.

Also bistros and restaurants go on holiday, and most of them close from the beginning till the end of the month. The Rotonda della Besana, near Piazza Cinque Giornate, stays open. Former cemetery, now the Rotonda hosts a museum for children, but on the weekend it opens its doors, or rather its gardens, also to adults.

Every Saturdays and Sundays, in fact, Rotondabistro provides everything you need for a picnic perfect for your instagram pictures: mini croissants, bagels, mini quiches, coffee, juices and, of course, basket and blanket.