Milan with children
Museums that actually work with children, parks, manageable distances and why an apartment changes the trip when you travel as a family.
3 min readUpdated September 15, 2026
Milan has a reputation as a city for adults: work, fashion, aperitivi. That is only partly true. It is also a flat, compact city with large parks, wide pavements and museums children run through — which, on a trip, matters more than any monument.
The museums that actually work
National Museum of Science and Technology Leonardo da Vinci. Italy's largest technical museum, with a real submarine you go inside, steam locomotives, aircraft and ships. It takes half a day and bores nobody, at any age.
Civic Aquarium. Small, inside Parco Sempione, in a Liberty-style building. Perfect with little ones: you see it all before anyone melts down.
Natural History Museum, in the Indro Montanelli gardens. Dinosaurs, dioramas, minerals. Next door are the Planetarium and a park with rides: a whole day without moving.
Castello Sforzesco. The courtyards are enormous and made for running. Inside there are suits of armour and the Pietà Rondanini; outside is Parco Sempione with its fountain and viewing tower.
The Duomo rooftops. You really do walk among the spires. Note: there are many steps unless you take the lift, and in summer the marble is hot.
The parks
- Parco Sempione, behind the Castello: the most central.
- Giardini Indro Montanelli, at Porta Venezia: rides, the museum, the planetarium.
- Parco Lambro, to the east: huge, genuinely green, two stops from Città Studi.
- BAM — Biblioteca degli Alberi, at Porta Nuova: new, designed, full of free events.
- Collina dei Ciliegi, in Bicocca: small, but it is the neighbourhood's hill and in April it flowers all at once.
Getting around with a pushchair
The metro is the best way, with one honest caveat: not every station has a lift. The newer lines — M5 and M4 — are accessible throughout; M1 and M2, built decades ago, have stations with stairs only.
Modern trams and buses have low floors and a ramp position for pushchairs. The historic trams, the beautiful ones, do not.
Practical advice: if you travel with a pushchair, choose a flat near the M5 or M4, or at least near a station with a lift. It changes the day.
Why an apartment
With children an apartment is not a saving, it is a different thing altogether:
- A kitchen, for children's food, breakfast at seven and dinner at six — an hour at which Italian restaurant kitchens are closed.
- A washing machine, which with a small child runs daily.
- Space: two rooms instead of one, and nobody knocking on the wall at nine in the evening.
- A supermarket downstairs, for the milk that runs out at seven in the morning.
Our one-bedroom flats in via Monte Nevoso and Casa Porpora are in buildings with lifts, on quiet streets, with supermarkets and parks a few minutes' walk away. The sofa bed allows a third or fourth sleeping place.
Two things to know
The heat. From June to September Milan passes thirty-five degrees with high humidity. Air conditioning is not a luxury, and walks happen early in the morning or after six.
Restaurant hours. Kitchens open at 19:30 and serve nothing before. With small children you have dinner at home and go out for lunch: that is what works.
Frequently asked questions
- What can you do in Milan with children?
- The National Museum of Science and Technology with its submarine and trains, the Civic Aquarium, the Castello Sforzesco and its courtyards, the Natural History Museum in the Montanelli gardens, and the city parks, which are large and well equipped.
- Do children pay for public transport in Milan?
- Children under a certain height travel free on ATM services when accompanied. The exact conditions are published by the transport operator and are worth checking before you travel.
- Apartment or hotel with children in Milan?
- An apartment, almost always. A kitchen for children's meals and children's hours, a washing machine, room to play and no neighbouring room to disturb.
