Historic New England Travel: Culture as Catalyst in Milan

Historic New England Travel

THE CITY REVISITED: Culture as Catalyst in Milan, Italy

November 7-11, 2023

THE CITY REVISITED: Culture as Catalyst in Milan, Italy

November 7-11, 2023

This exceptional tour offers a unique and timely opportunity to immerse yourself in Milan’s fascinating industrial heritage and discover the city’s breathtaking cultural future. Join Historic New England on a dynamically-paced overview of cultural foundations and museums with inventive architectural solutions crafted from the fabric of industrial cast offs, some of which had lain dormant for decades. Among the trip highlights, we will look at the Fabbrica del Vapore, renovated by the city of Milan in 2008; Mudec opened as a city museum in 2015 after being transformed by David Chipperfield, the 2023 recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize; and two private initiatives, one by fashion icon Miuccia Prada and designed by Rem Koolhaas in 2015 in a former distillery, and the HangarBicocca, purchased by Pirelli in 2004 and opened in 2012.

Tuesday, November 7

Arrival into Milan

• Arrivals from the USA throughout the day.

• Transfers to the hotel arranged on request.

Check-in to the luxurious Portrait Milan Hotel.

Please note that official check-in time is 3:00 p.m. If you are arriving early morning you may wish to book your room from the night before to guarantee immediate access upon your arrival.

5:00 p.m. Depart the hotel for a visit and aperitivo at the Fabbrica del Vapore.

Dinner

Return to the hotel for dinner at Ristorante 10_11.

Overnight Portrait Milan Hotel.

Fabbrica del Vapore

At the end of the 19th century, in the midst of the industrial revolution, the first major engineering industries were born in Italy, especially in the north. In a time of great transformations, the city of Milan emerged as one of the most fertile sites for new industry. On January 26, 1899, the Carminati, Toselli & C. Company was founded on Via Messina for the “construction, repair, sale of mobile and fixed material for railways, tramways and the like.“

The following decades saw the infrastructure expand throughout the neighborhood. The First World War was weathered successfully, but the crash of 1929 and the rise of Fascism took its toll and the company was dissolved in 1935. The buildings were at first rented and then sold to different companies (textile, pharmaceutical, typography, road haulage and various warehouses).

The Second World War marked the beginning of the decline of this industrial neighborhood. With the area bombed and slow to recuperate in the postwar period the area was slowly abandoned. In 2008 the City of Milan stepped in and rescued their industrial heritage, commissioning the present Fabbrica del Vapore (Steam Factory). This stark, industrial-chic and vast venue features workshops for local artisans a gigantic barn-like space that hosts major international shows such as the son-et-lumière visual feast featuring the life and works of Vincent Van Gogh. It has become one of the coolest venues in the city.

Wednesday, November 8

Breakfast in our hotel.

Visit Mudec. Museo delle Culture di Milano: David Chipperfield’s “City of Culture”.

Lunch at the Mudec Bistrot by Enrico Bartolini.

Continue to Villa Necchi Campiglio.

Private after-hours visit of Leonardo’s Last Supper. Opened privately for us after public closing time.

Dinner

At the end of the visit, transfer to dinner at Il Salumaio di Montenapoleone or Ristorane Don Carlos.

Short walk back to the hotel.

Overnight

Portrait Milan Hotel.

David Chipperfield’s Museo delle Culture di Milano

Born out of a salvage operation of industrial archaeology, Mudec comprises various spaces able to offer a range of cultural events and facilities spread out over an area of 17,000 square metres.

The display area is laid out around a large, covered central plaza on the first floor, which hosts space for the permanent collection, galleries for major exhibitions as well as the auditorium and a 300-seat theatre devoted to performances.

Villa Necchi Campiglio

The Necchi Family were great industrialists in the first half of the 20th century. Villa Necchi provides an oasis of calm in the center of Milan. Surrounded by a beautiful garden with swimming pool and tennis court, the villa is an unexpected jewel built between 1932 and 1935 by architect Piero Portaluppi.

The villa has survived intact with its rich succession of rooms; the architecture, decorative arts, furnishings and collections expressing a harmonious whole. In addition, two important donations enrich the house: Claudia Gian Ferrari’s collection of early 20th-century art and Alighiero de’ Micheli’s collection of 18th-century paintings and decorative arts.

Leonardo’s Last Supper Private, after-hours visit.

In 1495, Leonardo da Vinci was commissioned to paint a ‘Last Supper’ on the refectory wall belonging to The Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie. Instead of painting in the traditional true fresco style into wet plaster, he sealed the stone wall with a layer of pitch and mastic and then painted onto the dry sealing layer with tempera. The experimental technique has struggled to withstand the test of time and as early as 1517, the image of Christ and his apostles was beginning to fade. But thanks to a major restoration Leonardo’s Last Supper has survived and can now be admired over five hundred years later.

Thursday, November 9

Breakfast in our hotel.

Visit HangarBicocca.

Lunch in HangarBicocca at Iuta Bistrot.

Transfer to the Prada Foundation.

Dinner

Restaurant Torre at the Prada Foundation.

Overnight Portrait Milan Hotel.

HangarBicocca

The art space HangarBicocca, wholly funded and managed by Pirelli, was founded in Milan in 2004 and is the outcome of the conversion of an industrial plant into a venue for art and contemporary culture. Following restoration work that retained the characteristics and unique aspects of the site originally used to construct locomotives, in 2012 HangarBicocca re-launched its program of exhibitions and events. On the outside, the building has retained the industrial character of the company to which it belonged. The original rough concrete floors and high ceilings typical of the industrial style of the time have been preserved: in the room containing Anselm Kiefer’s permanent installation The ‘Seven Heavenly Palaces’, traces of the rails used to test locomotives are still visible. This enormous exhibition space covering almost 15,000 square metres is divided into three main areas: the Cube, the Shed and the Navate.

Prada Foundation

For more than 20 years, the Prada Foundation has been staging contemporary art exhibitions in abandoned warehouses and disused churches, bringing contemporary artists like Anish Kapoor and Michael Heizer to Italian audiences, often for the first time. More recently however, the Prada Foundation has set its sights on establishing permanent homes to present exhibitions and to show its vast holdings of art, mostly works from the 1950s to the present.

The foundation opened an outpost at Ca’ Corner della Regina, an 18th-century Palazzo on the Grand Canal in Venice. On May 9, 2015 a new exhibition space opened in Milan on the site of an old distillery. In April 2018, the new Torre was opened at the Milan site. The Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas has created this complex that has become a major international destination for the art.

Friday, November 10

Breakfast in our hotel.

Depart on foot to the Brera. Visit the Palazzo Brera with welcome by the director, James Bradburne.

Lunch nearby at Il Carminio.

Continue our visits of the Brera Complex.

Return to the hotel.

Dinner

Our final dinner at the Michelin One-Star, Ristorante L’Alchimia.

Overnight

Portrait Milan Hotel.

Palazzo Brera

Palazzo Brera was built on the remains of a 14th century monastery of the Umiliati order. When the order was suppressed by Papal Bull in 1571, the building was given to the Jesuits, who founded a school here.

Architect Francesco Maria Richini began in the early 17th century to turn it into the solidly austere building we see today. When the Jesuits were disbanded in 1773, the Collegio di Brera became state property and Empress Maria Theresa of Austria decided to use it to house several of the city’s leading cultural institutes. The Brera complex includes the Pinacoteca di Brera, Accademia di Belle Arti and the Istituto Lombardo di Scienze e Lettere. She also assigned the Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense with its impressive Maria Teresa Hall, the Osservatorio Astronomico and the Orto Botanico to her new foundation.

Saturday, November 11

Departures from Milan

Breakfast in our hotel.

Individual departures throughout the day.

This is a working itinerary and modifications may occur depending upon the ultimate availability of our hosts or certain events. The itinerary is subject to change.

While this ‘holistic’ approach to culture, science, nature and education has as its beginnings the Jesuit movement, it was embraced and promoted by leaders of the Enlightenment such as Empress Maria Teresa. That the Brera Complex has been so scrupulously maintained throughout Italy’s turbulent history, is not only impressive, it is a wonderful model for contemporary institutions.

Program Costs

$7,950 per person based on double occupancy.

$1,590 single supplement.

Just a few steps from the Duomo and La Scala, in the heart of the Quadrilatero della Moda is Portrait Milan, the city’s newest luxury hotel complex which opened in December 2022. The hotel is housed in a former Seminary recognized as being among the country’s oldest examples of Lombard Baroque architecture. To preserve its historic structure while transforming it into a decidedly modern hub for hospitality, entertainment, and culture, an extensive restoration was carried out by the Ferragamo fashion dynasty.

View full itinerary and how to book at:

HistoricNewEngland.org/

At the heart of the complex is the Piazza del Quadrilatero, which, at 32,000 square feet is the largest public square in the fashion district. Within its historic colonnades are housed the 5-star hotel and spa as well as luxury boutiques and restaurants. Portrait Milano reimagines a historic structure with the contemporary style of its fashionable setting.

Portrait Milan Hotel

TERMS & CONDITIONS

Program Costs

• $7,950 per person based on double occupancy.

• $1,590 single supplement.

Deposit and Final Payment

• A deposit of US $2,500 per person is required to confirm your place on the program. The deposit is refundable up until May 1, 2023 less a 3.5% bank fee. Balance of payment for the program is due 90 days prior to departure, August 9, 2023.

• If you should have to cancel after May 1, but prior to and including August 9, 2023 your deposit would be forfeited. For any cancellations after August 9, 2023, your full payment becomes non-refundable.

• All payments may be made by American Express, VISA, Master Card, or check.

Cost includes:

• 4 nights accommodation at the Portrait Milan Hotel in Portrait Studio or Studio Deluxe rooms.

• Full breakfast, daily.

• 3 lunches with selected wines, mixed drinks, mineral water, coffee or tea.

• 4 dinners with selected wines, mixed drinks, mineral water, coffee or tea.

• All visits, entrance fees, speakers’ fees, and events including special private openings and curators’ tours.

• All land transport as outlined in the program in a comfortable, air-conditioned coach or minivans as required.

• All taxes for goods and services.

• All tips for personnel: hotel, restaurant, guiding staff and drivers.

• Trip accompanied by Historic New England President and CEO Vin Cipolla.

• On-site services of Benefactor Travel staff throughout the trip.

Not included:

• International airfare.

• Arrival and departure transfers.

• Personal charges (laundry, minibar, telephone etc).

• Travel Insurance.

Benefactor Travel strongly recommends that each traveler take out a fully comprehensive travel insurance policy. Many companies offer travel insurance. A few we recommend:

Travel Guard 1.800.826.5248

John Hancock Insurance Agency, Inc. 1.866.888.7803

Allianz Travel Insurance 1.866.884.3556

The price of travel protection is determined by factors such as your state of residence, region of travel, trip price and age. Please reach out to your travel insurance company of choice for an exact quote. We recommend that your policy includes coverage for pre-existing conditions. In our experience, this has been an important benefit. Please note some plans offer additional medical coverage plus additional benefits when purchased within 14 days of making your deposit, including coverage for pre-existing medical conditions, bankruptcy, and cancellation. You may also wish to check with your credit card company, as some card companies offer travel insurance, although it can be very limited.

We reserve the right to cancel the program due to insufficient participants. In the unlikely event that the tour is canceled, participants will be informed no later than August 9, 2023 and any trip payments will be refunded in full. We are not responsible for any collateral costs, including airfare or other personal expenses, incurred by travelers due to trip cancellation.

This is a working itinerary and modifications may occur depending upon the ultimate availability of our hosts or certain events. The itinerary is subject to change.