Brera Art Gallery

What you'll see. Brera's 38 rooms run from medieval gold-ground panels to the 20th century, with the strongest showing in Italian Renaissance and Baroque painting. The Venetian rooms hold Bellini and Tintoretto, the Lombard rooms show how Leonardo's followers painted, and the 19th-century galleries close with Hayez's The Kiss of 1859.

The palace. The gallery fills the first floor of Palazzo Brera, a 17th-century former Jesuit college that also houses an academy of fine arts, an astronomical observatory and a historic library. In the arcaded courtyard stands a bronze Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker, cast from Canova's model.

Before or after. The streets around the museum are some of Milan's most pleasant to walk, with small galleries and cafés. Across the road at Via Brera 14, Palazzo Citterio shows the 20th-century collection, including Boccioni, Modigliani and Morandi; it needs its own ticket or the combined Grande Brera ticket.

Your audio guide. Audio guide included: access details are sent with your ticket. Brera currently allows independent visits only, with no group guiding inside, so an audio guide is the easiest way to hear the stories behind the paintings.