View of the UniCredit Tower

©Stephanie Ong/Lonely Planet


Italy’s tallest skyscraper (231m) is home to its largest bank, Unicredit, which occasionally allows the public to visit its dramatic top-deck viewing gallery (check the website). Designed by architect César Pelli, the building has won numerous awards, and its curvaceous form and needle-like, 84m-tall spire are now a symbol of Milan’s renewed ambitions to become Italy’s most fearless modern city.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby attractions

1. Piazza Gae Aulenti

0.03 MILES

Join locals sightseeing at this landmark square named after Italy's most famous female architect. The linchpin of Milan’s Porta Nuova regeneration project…

2. Bosco Verticale

0.14 MILES

Stefano Boeri’s ‘Vertical Forest’ consists of two high-rise apartment blocks whose many reinforced balconies overflow with around 700 trees and 20,000…

3. Biblioteca degli Alberi

0.18 MILES

Against a backdrop of shimmering skyscrapers and the Bosco Verticale, this modern urban park bustles with activity. Sprawling lawns, a rich variety of…

4. Casa della Memoria

0.25 MILES

In the shadow of the Bosco Verticale, you’ll spot a neon sign stating boldly ‘Do Not Kill’. It seems odd in this quiet corner, but it serves the ‘House of…

5. Fondazione Feltrinelli

0.29 MILES

Herzog & de Meuron’s first public buildings in Italy, these two elongated, slanted structures look reminiscent of greenhouses. The Feltrinelli Foundation,…

6. Palazzo Lombardia

0.36 MILES

Lombardy’s regional headquarters, this glinting, 161m, glass-and-steel skyscraper was the city’s first audacious step towards the contemporary skyline…

7. Cimitero Monumentale

0.51 MILES

Behind striking Renaissance-revival black-and-white walls, Milan’s wealthy have kept their dynastic ambitions alive long after death with grand sculptural…

8. Torre Pirelli

0.6 MILES

Construction began in 1956 on Milan’s tallest grattacielo (skyscraper). The 32-storey Pirelli Tower sits on the site of the company’s 19th-century factory…