Monumental Cemetery of Milan (Cimitero Monumentale)

The Cimitero Monumentale is one of Milan's most surprising sights: a vast walled cemetery that works as an open-air museum of Italian sculpture and architecture from the 19th and 20th centuries. It was designed by Carlo Maciachini to replace several smaller cemeteries scattered around the city, and it opened in the 1860s. Wealthy Milanese families competed to build ever more elaborate tombs here, and the result is an extraordinary collection of temples, obelisks, chapels, Art Nouveau reliefs and modernist designs.

The main entrance is the Famedio, a striped marble hall of honour in a mixture of medieval styles. It holds the tomb of the novelist Alessandro Manzoni, author of The Betrothed, and memorials to other notable Milanese. Beyond it, paths lead between avenues of family chapels. Look for the Campari family tomb with its bronze sculpture of the Last Supper, a scaled-down version of Trajan's Column, and the tombs of figures such as the conductor Arturo Toscanini. The former crematorium temple, opened in 1876, was the first in Italy. The cemetery also has a Jewish section and a section for non-Catholics.

Entry is free. The cemetery is closed on Mondays except on public holidays, and opening hours can change around All Saints' Day and other holidays, so check before you go. Pick up a map at the entrance so you can find the tombs you want to see, as the grounds are large. Some guided tours are offered at weekends. Allow at least an hour and a half; photographers and sculpture enthusiasts can easily spend half a day.

This is a working cemetery, so be respectful: keep voices low, do not climb on monuments and avoid photographing funerals. It suits adults and older children with an interest in art or history more than younger children. Paths are mostly flat, though some are gravel.

The Monumentale stop on metro line M5 is right by the entrance, and trams also stop nearby. Garibaldi station and the modern Porta Nuova district, with the Bosco Verticale towers, are about ten minutes' walk away, and the small streets of the Chinatown area around Via Paolo Sarpi lie just to the south-west.