Hundreds of installations spread throughout the city, and countless events and exhibits at the fair... The first rule for surviving the Milano Design Week is take the metro, so that you can juggle the many appointments of the week.

By boarding the M1 red metro line, you can easily reach the Salone del Mobile.Milano at the Rho Fieramilano terminus and comfortably navigate the downtown districts as well, like a true Milanese and design connoisseur. In fact, you should know that the Red Line is still a source of pride for Italian design. The architectural project and graphic design of the Milano subway are by Franco Albini, Franca Helg, and Bob Noorda who won the Compasso d'Oro Design Award in 1964.

The universal destination of passengers on the M1 red metro line is Duomo, the gravitational center of the city. After admiring the Gothic cathedral, you can walk and gaze at the installations that have transformed the face of the city center and the Quadrilatero, the Fashion District around Via Montenapoleone. Then nearby there are the ateliers of the designers of Magenta and 5Vie, as well as the Brera Art District, with the many showrooms and art galleries.

But it’s the glass-and-steel arcade of Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II which is the greatest masterpiece of Italian design. It was designed and built by architect Giuseppe Mengoni: raise your eyes to appreciate the uniqueness of the architecture which is symbolic of the city of Milano. One more reason to do it during the Milano Design Week is offered by the artistic installation We rise by lifting others by Marinella Senatore, which stands out from the windows of Galleria Cracco restaurant.

Taste a traditional dish of Milanese cuisine and you are already inside the soul and character of Milano. At lunch, be sure to try the yellow saffron risotto (risotto alla milanese) with ossobuco, a combination that endures the test of time and the passing of fads. Like the best design products. Collectively signed and guaranteed by the many outstanding chefs leading Milanese trattorias and restaurants.

Negroni "Sbagliato" (the "Wrong" Negroni) is the all-Milanese aperitivo and a ritual that you will find hard not to embrace.

A few blocks from the red metro stop of P.ta Venezia, you will find the bar that serves Milano’s ultimate concoction: the iconic Negroni "Sbagliato", the drink served in the famous "Bicchierone" (Big Glass) of Bar Basso, where the legend says that it was invented by mistake by Mirko Stocchetto, the barman who first mixed spumante (instead of standard Negroni’s gin) with Campari and red vermouth.

The city’s signature cocktail turns fifty-five this year. Il Bicchierone, also designed by Stocchetto, will enter the collection of Design Museum of the Triennale Milano. What better occasion to toast? For the duration of the Milano Design Week, Bar Basso jointly with Hidden Sound exhibits “55”, a limited edition of audio systems with ultra-thin speakers. The playlist can be heard here, but the party is on april the 20th.

In Milano, design follows you to the grave. If you take the metro to M5 Monumentale, you will be awed by Cimitero Monumentale (Monumental cemetery), a veritable open-air museum celebrating the memory of men and women who made Milano great and the skills of artists and sculptors who authored dazzling tombs and extravagant mausoleums. For instance, Giannino Castiglioni, the designer's grandfather, sculpted the Golgota (1926, Edicola Bernocchi) at the center of the necropolis.

After a walk in silence, it’s time for some hustle and bustle in some of the hot spots of this year's Milano Design Week: the ADI Design Museum, Fabbrica del Vapore, and the events at LOM’s.. there is still so much to discover.