10 things to do with kids in Milan

Speaking of sports, in the city there are 28 municipal swimming pools managed by the Milanosport company, some are multifunctional sports facilities. In addition to these there are another 112 facilities granted to sports associations and federations, and we are only talking about the municipal area! If we broaden the perspective to the metropolitan city, the data doubles and demonstrates how many opportunities young people living in the Milan area have to play sports.

Leaving the sports field, the opportunities for what to do in Milan with children are always generous. Let's think about art, the youngest can learn the first rudiments in classical institutions such as the Sforzesco Castle or museums dedicated to science, but there are also places of contemporary art such as the Hangar Bicocca and its Kids programme, without forgetting specific museums for children such as the MuBa ‒ Children's Museum ‒ or Wow Space Comics or even the Steam Factory with many exhibitions dedicated to younger people.

There's no shortage of fun. Among the 10 things to do in Milan with children you cannot miss the Idroscalo amusement park, one of the oldest in Italy, in the Novegro district which also lends itself to many events dedicated to collecting. There are also the most modern water parks and adventure parks, not only outside the city but also within the borders of Milan. The "smart one", however, is the Acquaworld of Concorezzo, in Brianza, the first indoor water park in Italy, therefore usable all year round. But here is now the list of 10 things to do in Milan with children.

Playing with science is the testing ground for all curious children and the Museum dedicated to the genius of Leonardo seems to have been created specifically to arouse the enthusiasm for knowledge in the youngest. After all, the great Tuscan master lived in Milan for a long time and left priceless works there - just think of the fresco of the Last Supper - and his genius is always the reason for exhibitions in the city.

Located in via San Vittore, in the Sant'Ambrogio district and near the basilica of the patron saint of Milan (M2 green metro stop), the "Leonardo da Vinci" Museum of Science and Technology offers creative workshops and many experiences for younger people to get closer to the world of research and scientific discoveries. There are projects dedicated to Future Inventors, to enhance scientific education in secondary schools, and international collaboration programs linked to Erasmus+.

Fun and learning constitute a single whole thanks to the iLab interactive laboratories. There are all types: on biotechnology, energy and the environment, nutrition, chemistry and mathematics, for the exploration of Mars and for marine environments, and there is also the iLab area for the little ones. Also not to be missed is the visit to the "Enrico Toti" submarine and the torpedoes used in World War II, as well as the section dedicated to vintage locomotives and trains.

Let's stay in the museum sector and the desire to know of the children for two much loved sites: the Planetarium and its magnificent vision of the starry vault and the Natural Sciences Museum with its fossils and reproductions of dinosaurs. Two places united by the fact of being inside a beautiful park in the center of the city: the Gardens of via Palestro (red metro M1, Porta Venezia or Palestro stops), today named after Indro Montanelli and designed at the end of the 18th century by the architect Giuseppe Piermarini, the same of the Teatro alla Scala.

Dedicated to Ulrico Hoepli, the civic Planetarium of Milan carries out an intense informal education activity, aimed at encouraging the interest of children, their desire for exploration. There are many things to do with children because the Planetarium organizes shows, music and astronomy evenings, experiences with virtual reality viewers, campuses.

Much loved by children and very popular with Milanese schools is the Natural History Museum inside the Palestro Gardens. The reason is easy to say: there are dinosaurs! And not only reproductions like that of the Triceratops, but also fossils and findings that have made it possible to compose well-defined skeletons, such as that of a tyrannosaurus. And then zoology, paleontology and mineralogy laboratories.

The Prehistory Park was born just for the passion that children have for dinosaurs and their animated stories in many films and cartoons. So let's take a trip out of the city, precisely to Rivolta d'Adda, about twenty kilometers east of Milan, where in an area of 100 hectares (one million square metres!) surrounded by greenery there is a park dedicated to dinosaurs, with reproductions in original dimensions of the great extinct reptiles. One of the unmissable things to do with children if you live in Milan but you also want to look around Lombardia.

Open from February to November, the Park also offers routes to discover the fauna and flora of the Adda river, with the presence of animals that live in semi-freedom and educational environments. There is the swan lake and the heron lake, a botanical itinerary and the Paleontological Museum perfect for visiting schools. For fun, there is the labyrinth, the laboratories for fossil hunting, but also many spaces to play, cycle and enjoy the outdoors (and why not, a picnic).

Let's return to Milan to discover a young museum, born only in 1998: the MuBa, Children's Museum. However, since 2014 it has been located inside a very ancient institution, the Rotonda della Besana with its park. A place that over time has been a hospital, a cemetery area and Napoleon also wanted to make it the pantheon of the Milanese. Today it is dedicated to children, thanks to MuBa which organizes game exhibitions, including interactive ones, and has become one of the musts among the 10 things to do in Milan with children.

The characteristic of MuBa is that its spaces can be attended with a limited number of people, so as not to crowd them too much and make the educational experiences linked to the game in vain. A family or a school or anyone else books the spaces and, once the attendance limit is reached, takes part in the museum's many initiatives, dedicated to children from 12 months to 11 years. In short, at MuBa they know that by playing you grow, by handling tools you think and thus you become creative! All the info on https://www.muba.it/it. You can get there by tram or bus, the closest metro stops are San Babila (red line M1) and Crocetta (yellow line M3).

Milan is a city that always wants to live outdoors and among the things to do with children there is a natural outdoor experience. As soon as they can, the Milanese take their children to parks and gardens to give them a few hours of sunshine. The city park par excellence is the Sempione, right in the centre, and there are various opportunities for children to play and discover, for example with guides who take them to admire the Bagni Misteriosi fountain, the largest sculpture by Giorgio De Chirico, or the Little Mermaids bridge adorned with four mermaids.

From Sempione Park you can then directly access the Sforzesco Castle, with its rich collections and the creative laboratories of Sforzinda managed until a few years ago by the Municipality. But in addition to parks and gardens there is also a real... forest in Milan. It is called Boscoincittà (Woods in city, literary) and was created by the Italia Nostra association on an area of 120 hectares to carry out urban forestation projects. It is located inside the Southern Milan Agricultural Park and can be reached at the entrance on Via Novara with bus line 80.

Boscoincittà is practically united with the large Trenno Park, now dedicated to the former mayor Aldo Aniasi, and the area of the former San Siro racecourse, thus constituting a large green lung that occupies the western area of the city. Inside Boscoincittà there are meadows, waterways, wetlands, around 200 vegetable gardens assigned to citizens, an apiary and an orchard, a guesthouse to spend the night too. The volunteers are often supported by the younger ones, who carry out activities such as the Adventures in the Woods (6-11 years), the Nature Camp (11-15 years), the Woodland Band (7-12 years).

From the western area of ​​Milan we move south, to the Corvetto district, where the largest city adventure park in Italy opened a few years ago. Ropes and helmets, harnesses and carabiners, but above all a lot of courage and who else has that to spare if not the youngest! The “Tree Experience” adventure park offers routes for all ages, from two-year-olds to adults. He immerses himself in nature with walkways, Tibetan bridges, leaps into the void, lianas, always under the protection of nets. In Lombardia you can find lots of adventure parkes.

Adrenaline and safety go hand in hand, therefore, to imagine yourself in Milan as if you were in the jungle. And for the bravest there is bungee jumping with a 15 meter leap into the void, but you must be at least 10 years old. To reach the "Tree Experience" adventure park, the metro is convenient (yellow line M3, Porto di Mare stop), but the railway link with a stop in Rogoredo is also not far away.

Milan is a city of water and maybe you don't know it, and once upon a time it was even more so. Three canals that enter right inside the city, a dock restored to inhabitants, two rather exuberant rivers - Seveso and Lambro. On the west and east sides, two beautiful rivers: the Ticino and the Adda with their parks. Many know, however, that Milan is a flat city, and so the cycle paths were born from the two pillars of water and plain, which allow pleasant trips out of town without too much effort, in short, the right rides to do with children.

The first and best-known cycle route is that of the Naviglio Grande. About twenty kilometers from Porta Genova station, the heart of the canals and its nightlife, to the romantic Abbiategrasso. It passes through suggestive places such as the Church of San Cristoforo and then the municipalities of Gaggiano and Trezzano sul Naviglio, with various asphalted sections.

Abbiategrasso is also worth a careful visit and is located in the middle of the Ticino Park, with its wooded areas and crowded beaches in summer. If you want, there is no shortage of activities such as canoeing and gentle rafting, which can also be done with slightly older children.

Let's put our feet back on the ground and return to something more placid and calm. Reading for example, we always immerse ourselves but this time in reading comics, which for a few years in Milan - exactly since 2011 - have found their welcoming home. It is located in Viale Campania 12 and has recovered the former Motta factory, where the famous panettone was produced until 1984 and proud of Milanese cooking. There are many buses that arrive there, line 90 is the most frequent, the nearby metro is the blue line M4, Susa stop.

WOW Comics Space carries out an intense activity of exhibitions, events and courses to teach children how to conceive and draw comics. The visit is decidedly pleasant even for the older ones, because it gives free access to reading around 9,000 publications from the WOW Library, and there is no shortage of a modern cafeteria and a specialized and well-stocked bookshop.

Roller coasters, rides, bumper cars, shooting galleries and haunted houses. In short, the amusement park and what child wouldn't be happy to go there? But even older kids love them, knowing they will also find bowling and, soon, mini golf. Euro Park Idroscalo is the latest name of one of the oldest Italian amusement parks, it is located on Via Rivoltana, near Linate and its airport.

A few kilometers further from Linate, towards Bergamo, in Capriate San Gervaso, there is Leolandia and Minitalia, an amusement park tailor-made for children.

The amusement park is open for evening entertainment, but the Idroscalo area also offers a lot during the day, especially in summer. With its large park, cycle paths and running paths, a trip to Idroscalo is undoubtedly among the things to do in Milan with children. The Milanese have somewhat lost the desire to have a bath in its waters, but there is no shortage of sporting activities, from canoeing to rowing and even surfing and wakeboarding thanks to a system that produces artificial waves.

We are close to summer and amusement parks are mainly turning into water parks. Within the municipality of Milan, between San Siro and Baggio in via Airaghi 61, there is Acquatica Park, a historic and large water park that offers fun and relaxation for all ages. Children have many attractions at their disposal, with different levels by age, and parents can count on a picnic area and services dedicated to the little ones.

Similar concept for Acquaworld in Concorezzo, we are in Brianza (north of Milan), but the difference lies in the indoor covers which allow you to enjoy the park even in bad weather. Attractions and a white sand Caribbean beach for everyone, but the plus is the wellness area for the older ones (minimum 16 years): so the children can be left at the miniclub for an hour and a half and the adults relax with saunas, steam rooms and hydromassages.