Porta Nuova and Isola — modern Milan's skyline and neighbourhood

Porta Nuova is the Milan that emerges from international design magazines: a forest of glass towers, sunken public squares, and the famous Bosco Verticale — twin residential towers clad in 800 trees and 20,000 plants. Adjacent Isola is deliberately its opposite: a compact working-class neighbourhood that resisted gentrification just enough to keep its personality intact, now hosting indie cafés, murals, and a Saturday food market within sight of the gleaming office blocks.

Porta Nuova: the new skyline

The Porta Nuova development took shape between 2004 and 2016, transforming a post-industrial rail yard into one of Europe’s most photographed urban renewal projects. The quarter is anchored by Piazza Gae Aulenti, a sunken circular plaza named after the architect responsible for the Musée d’Orsay’s interior conversion. The plaza sits below street level, surrounded by towers, and features a reflecting pool, fountains, and the UniqloStore and Apple flagship stores at its edges.

The standout structure is the Bosco Verticale (Vertical Forest), designed by Stefano Boeri Architetti and completed in 2014. The two residential towers (111 and 76 metres) carry a genuinely extraordinary quantity of vegetation on their cantilevered terraces — a collective ecosystem equivalent to two and a half hectares of forest. The building is private residential and cannot be entered, but viewing it from the Via Gaetano de Castillia side at dusk, when the terrace planting glows against the sky, is one of contemporary Milan’s signature experiences.

For a broader guide to the city’s modern architecture, see our modern Milan architecture guide.

The UniCredit Tower and surroundings

The UniCredit Tower (2012, César Pelli), at 231 metres, is the tallest building in Italy. It anchors the northeast end of the Porta Nuova complex and is best seen from Piazza Gae Aulenti below. The adjacent UniCredit Pavilion is used for cultural events and exhibitions; check the programme if you are visiting.

The Bosco Verticale’s surrounding streets — Via della Moscova and Via Melchiorre Gioia — have an emerging restaurant and bar scene aimed at the area’s professional residents. Prices are higher than in Isola or Brera; the neighbourhood still feels slightly transactional.

Isola: the neighbourhood that stayed itself

Isola (the name means “island”) earned its nickname from the railway tracks that cut it off from the rest of the city for most of the twentieth century. That isolation preserved its character: Isola remained working-class and slightly marginal long after the surrounding areas upgraded. Today the tension between the old neighbourhood and the Porta Nuova glass towers looming at its edge gives the area a particular energy.

Walk Via Carmagnola, Via Borsieri, and Via Porro Lambertenghi to find independent coffee roasters, natural wine bars, small bookshops, and Vietnamese and Korean restaurants that opened well before fusion cooking arrived in the rest of Milan. The Saturday farmers market on Via Borsieri (Mercato Isola, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.) sells organic produce, cheese, bread, and street food from small Lombard and Italian producers.

Street art is Isola’s other asset. Several building facades along Via Carmagnola, Via Thaon di Revel, and the railway embankment carry major murals, including work from international artists invited through festivals. A walk through the neighbourhood without any particular agenda is rewarded with small discoveries.

Eating and drinking in Porta Nuova and Isola

The choice divides sharply. For a serious lunch or dinner, the restaurants around Via Borsieri and Via Carmagnola in Isola offer better value and more interesting cooking than Porta Nuova proper. For a coffee or pastry in a design-forward setting, the cafés around Piazza Gae Aulenti deliver.

Notable options include a clutch of small wine bars on Via Borsieri that double as natural wine shops, several Japanese ramen spots that are consistently good, and a few old-fashioned Milanese osterie that have survived around Via Porro Lambertenghi.

Connecting to other parts of Milan

Metro M5 (lilac line) stops at Isola station, directly in the neighbourhood’s heart. The Garibaldi hub (M2 green, M5 lilac) is the main gateway to the entire area and connects directly to Milan Centrale (one stop on M2).

• Brera and Sforza Castle — 15 minutes south on foot
• Milan city centre — 25 minutes south on foot or metro
• Navigli — 40 minutes south-west (metro change recommended)

For a combined itinerary that links Porta Nuova with Brera and the Duomo, see Milan in 2–3 days.

Cimitero Monumentale: the city’s open-air sculpture museum

A 15-minute walk west of Porta Nuova, the Cimitero Monumentale (Monumental Cemetery) is one of the most extraordinary burial grounds in Europe and one of Milan’s genuinely unmissable free sites. Founded in 1866 by Carlo Maciachini, the cemetery contains over 10,000 monumental tombs and sculptures commissioned from leading Italian artists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The result is an open-air anthology of Italian funerary art at its most ambitious: Art Nouveau pavilions, Symbolist allegories, Fascist-era marble reliefs, and a handful of genuinely moving works by sculptors including Medardo Rosso and Ernesto Bazzaro.

The Famedio (Hall of Fame), a neo-Gothic central building at the entrance, contains the tombs of Alessandro Manzoni (author of I Promessi Sposi) and other notable Milanese. Maps of the cemetery are available at the entrance gate; the most remarkable area is the left half of the grounds, where the largest neoclassical and Art Nouveau family mausolea are concentrated. Entry is free; open Tuesday to Sunday 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Design and fashion showrooms in the Via Tortona area

West of Porta Genova station (a 20-minute walk from Porta Nuova, or 5 minutes from the Navigli), the Via Tortona district has evolved from a leather-goods industrial zone into the design and fashion showroom quarter of Milan. During Design Week (April) and fashion weeks (February, September) the converted factories and warehouses here host some of the most important brand installations and temporary exhibitions. Year-round, the permanent tenants include studios, communication agencies, and design consultancies that form the infrastructure of Milan’s creative industry.

The Fondazione Prada (on Largo Isarco, 15 minutes south on tram) is a major contemporary art foundation occupying a 1910 distillery complex. Designed by Rem Koolhaas, it has permanent collections and rotating contemporary exhibitions, an extraordinary gilded building (the Haunted House), and a film museum. Entry around €15. Well worth a half-day.

What to expect: the honest picture

Porta Nuova is impressive architecture and urban planning, but it is not a neighbourhood with much soul — the ground-floor retail is mostly global brands, and the plaza can feel windswept and corporate outside peak hours. Isola, with its street texture and independent businesses, is where the visit becomes genuinely interesting. Budget an hour for the Porta Nuova architecture and a further hour or two for wandering Isola, ideally around Saturday market time.

Frequently asked questions about Porta Nuova and Isola

Can I visit the Bosco Verticale apartments?

No. The Bosco Verticale is a private residential building and is not open to visitors. You can view it freely from the streets below — the best angles are from Via Gaetano de Castillia and the garden area around Piazza XXV Aprile.

Is Porta Nuova far from the historic centre?

About 25 minutes on foot from the Duomo, heading north along Via Manzoni through the fashion district or through Brera. By metro (M1 to M2 change at Cadorna or M3 to M2) it takes about 20 minutes. The M5 lilac line is the most direct, with Isola station right in the neighbourhood.

What is Piazza Gae Aulenti?

A sunken circular public square at the heart of the Porta Nuova development, surrounded by glass office towers and flagship retail. The reflecting pool and seating make it a popular lunchtime spot for office workers. It was named in 2012 after the Italian architect Gae Aulenti (1927–2012).

When is the Isola Saturday market?

The Mercato Isola runs every Saturday from roughly 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. along Via Borsieri. It is one of the better food markets in the city: organic vegetables and fruit, artisan cheese, honey, bread, and street food alongside a few craft and vintage stalls.

Is Isola safe to walk around?

Yes, very much so. Isola is a quiet residential neighbourhood by day and a moderately busy bar area in the evenings. The streets are safe and well-used at all hours.

What else is there to see near Porta Nuova?

Cimitero Monumentale (Monumental Cemetery), a 15-minute walk west, is one of the most extraordinary necropolises in Europe — an open-air museum of nineteenth and twentieth-century sculpture and monumental architecture. Entry is free. The Jannacci Gallery at the entrance and the Famedio (hall of fame) are the highlights.

How does Porta Nuova compare to similar districts in other cities?

It is often compared to La Défense in Paris or Canary Wharf in London: a planned business district that grafted new towers onto the edge of an old city. Unlike those examples, Porta Nuova had the Bosco Verticale, which genuinely transcends the genre and is worth seeing regardless of how you feel about corporate real estate.