Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Sights
1
Orto Botanico
GARDENS
Maria Teresa had the towering gingko tree planted here in 1777, when she turned
the former Jesuit veggie patch into an open-air lecture hall for budding botanists
(the wunderkind of the Enlightenment). This fragrant, walled garden is still filled
with medicinal plants and is a perfect nature fix after the cultural onslaught of the
Pinacoteca.
(Via Brera 28; admission free;
9am-noon & 1-4pm Mon-Fri;
Montenapoleone)
2
Basilica di San Simpliciano
CHURCH
San Simpliciano is one of St Ambrose's four Milanese churches, built on a paleo-
Christian cemetery with a red-brick Romanesque wrapping. Martyrs Sisinio,
Martirio and Alessandro are buried here, and supposedly rose from their graves in
the form of doves to give courage to the Lombard League in the battle of Legnano
(1176), leading to the defeat of Barbarossa. The beautiful fresco in the apse is Ber-
gognone's
Coronation of the Virgin
(1515).
(
02 86 22 74;
www.sansimpliciano.it
; Piazza
San Simpliciano 7; admission free;
9am-noon & 2.15-7pm Mon-Fri, 9.30am-7pm Sat & Sun;
Lanza)