Museo Poldi Pezzoli

The Poldi Pezzoli is the museum Milanese art lovers recommend to friends who think they have seen everything. It was the home of Gian Giacomo Poldi Pezzoli, a nineteenth-century aristocrat and collector who decorated each room of his palazzo on Via Manzoni in a different historical style to show off his treasures and left the house and its contents to the city as a foundation; it opened as a museum in 1881. The building was badly damaged by bombing in 1943 and rebuilt after the war, but the collection survived and the restored rooms keep the feel of a private house rather than a gallery. The headline painting is Piero del Pollaiolo's Portrait of a Young Woman, the profile of a Florentine lady in a pearl-trimmed headdress that has become the museum's emblem. Around her hang works by Botticelli, including the Madonna of the Book, Piero della Francesca, Andrea Mantegna, Giovanni Bellini, Lombard masters influenced by Leonardo, and later Venetian views. The museum is just as strong on objects: an armour collection displayed in a dramatic room redesigned by the sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro, a collection of sundials, clocks and scientific instruments, lace, Murano glass, porcelain and jewellery. The Dante study, a small room decorated in a neo-Gothic style with stained glass, shows how far the collector went to create a mood. Everything is on a human scale, the labels are clear and the rooms are rarely crowded, which makes the Poldi Pezzoli the perfect contrast to the timed rush of the Last Supper or the size of Brera. It sits a minute's walk from La Scala and the Galleria, so it slots easily into a central day.

Practical details: the museum is at Via Manzoni 12, a two-minute walk from Piazza della Scala, and it is closed on Tuesdays, with a midday break on its timetable. Tickets are bought at the door or online; the Tiqets venue page currently sells the combined house-museum card, which also covers the Bagatti Valsecchi, Villa Necchi Campiglio and the Boschi Di Stefano house, so it is good value if you plan to see more than one. Free audio guides and printed room guides are usually available, and large bags must be left in the cloakroom.

How to visit: allow about ninety minutes. Start on the ground floor with the armour room, then take the grand staircase to the first floor, where the main paintings are hung in the Golden Room and the smaller rooms around it. Give the Pollaiolo portrait a few unhurried minutes and find the Botticelli and Piero della Francesca nearby, then move through the clocks, glass and jewellery rooms. The museum regularly hosts small, focused exhibitions built around a single work or theme, which are often excellent.

Combining it: the Poldi Pezzoli sits between La Scala, the Galleria and the Quadrilatero della Moda, so it is easy to fit before an evening at the opera or between shopping streets. Art lovers can pair it with the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana for a day of Milan's private collections, or with the Bagatti Valsecchi, another house museum five minutes away in the fashion district.