Museo Poldi Pezzoli: A Private Collector's House, 12 Minutes from Our B&B

Milan's great museums are impressive; the Museo Poldi Pezzoli is lovable. It is the house of a nineteenth-century nobleman who spent his life collecting, left everything to the city, and asked that it stay exactly as he had arranged it. From Taylor's Love Solferino B&B it is a short walk through Brera.

Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan. Photo: Giovanni Dall'Orto, Wikimedia Commons.

Getting There from Our B&B

On foot: approximately 1.0 km, about 12 minutes from Via Solferino 56, down Via Solferino and Via Manzoni.

By metro: Montenapoleone (M3) is two minutes from the door; from the B&B, Turati on the same line is under a kilometre away.

One Man, One Lifetime, One Idea

Gian Giacomo Poldi Pezzoli (1822–1879) inherited a fortune and a palace on Via Manzoni and turned the family apartments into a series of themed rooms – Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque – each designed around the works it held.

He left the house and everything in it to the public, and it opened as a museum in 1881. It was one of the first house museums in Europe, and the model for many that followed.

Allied bombing in August 1943 destroyed much of the building. The collection had been evacuated and survived; the interiors were rebuilt after the war, with the celebrated Golden Room restored to its original design.

What to Look For

• Portrait of a Young Woman by Piero del Pollaiolo – the profile portrait that is the museum's emblem and one of the most reproduced images in Italian art.
• The Golden Room – the small room at the top of the stairs where the finest paintings hang, including works by Botticelli, Mantegna and Bellini.
• Pietà by Giovanni Bellini and the Madonna by Andrea Mantegna.
• The armoury – redesigned in 2000 by Arnaldo Pomodoro, a startlingly contemporary room inside a historic house.
• The clock and watch collection – one of the most important in Europe, easily overlooked.
• The Murano glass and textiles – the sort of decorative arts that show what a real collector, rather than an institution, chooses.

Practical Information

• Opening hours: Wednesday to Monday, roughly 10:00 to 18:00. Closed Tuesdays.
• Admission: around 14 euro, with reductions.
• Time needed: about 90 minutes. It is compact and never exhausting.
• Best time to visit: almost any time – it is one of the few central Milan museums that is rarely crowded.
• Booking ahead: not necessary.

Combine It With

The museum is on Via Manzoni, at the edge of the Quadrilatero della Moda and two minutes from Teatro alla Scala. The Pinacoteca di Brera is a ten-minute walk north. Poldi Pezzoli and Brera together make an excellent day for anyone who likes painting.

Why Staying in Brera Makes the Difference

Taylor's Love Solferino B&B is at Via Solferino 56 in Zone 1, the historic centre, between Brera, Moscova and Corso Garibaldi. Small museums like this one reward a short unplanned visit – something only possible when you are staying a few streets away.

For travellers who prefer a short stay apartment in Milan centre to a hotel, the B&B offers free self check-in with a smart lock. Porta Garibaldi FS, 700 metres away, connects directly to Malpensa Airport with the Malpensa Express.