Between Piazza della Scala and Porta Nuova, there are many references to the leading lights of literature and music, including those to novelist Alessandro Manzoni and composer Giuseppe Verdi. A keystone of this area is the Poldi Pezzoli Museum, to which the set designer Giuseppe Bertini made a crucial contribution in terms of the layout and interior design; the museum even includes a room given over to the reading of Dante. But you cannot really start anywhere other than the Teatro alla Scala, the renown of which is closely intertwined with the works of Verdi. Also unmissable is the Museo Teatrale (Museum of La Scala), which contains myriad mementos of composers, conductors and opera singers. Behind Piazza della Scala, to the rear of Palazzo Marino, you come to Piazza San Fedele, where you can visit the appealing Jesuit church and admire the monument to Manzoni. The immediate vicinity plays host to long-established shops and restaurants of every type, as well as the celebrated Libreria Hoepli (Hoepli Bookshop), which has a specific tradition of editions of Manzoni’s works. A stone’s throw away, between Piazza Belgioioso and Via Morone, is the Casa di Manzoni (Manzoni’s House), which has recently been restored and re-opened to the public. If you take Corso Matteotti, you can then go on a gastronomic detour to Via San Pietro all’Orto, which is the location of the Salsamenteria di Parma, where they serve up culinary specialities from the Parma area, in homage to the composer. Returning to Via Manzoni through Via Verri and Via Bigli, in an area that includes several celebrated antiques dealers, you reach the Grand Hotel et de Milan, where the room in which Verdi died, in 1901, has been conserved intact. For lovers of literature, a visit to the nearby Palazzo Borromeo d’Adda is essential, since it was a firm favourite of Stendhal.
