Main Events in Milan

Carnevale is a Roman Catholic festival mainly comprising of street entertainment for children. The carnival season is a two-week period before the traditional Christian fasting of lent. The festivities involve dressing in costumes, street parades combining elements of a circus to music, public street entertainment, masquerade balls and general revelry. Children typically pelt each other with coriandoli (coloured confetti) and spray silly string and foam on each other and passers by. This holiday event is traditionally celebrated by enjoying a pastry called the Chiacchiere, a small fried or oven-baked, sugar or chocolate-covered delicacy.

This two-week long summer fete, held over the first three weekends in June along the banks of the Navigli Canal, includes markets, street artists, torchlit processions and much more.

The festival of the 'lover's knot', the Tortellini of Valeggio, is held in June each year. Across the Borghetto sul Mincio Visconti bridge, tables are lined up covering about 600 metres and seating about 4,000 diners. The pasta is all handmade by local restaurants and there are hundreds of sommeliers offering regional wines. This great festive dining experience is wrapped up with fireworks and music. Tickets must be bought in advance from the Association of Restaurateurs.

In September, Mantova holds a five day festival of cultural events stretching from literary readings, performances, concerts and street parties, attracting international talents and building relationships between performers and authors and their audiences. The city is the size of the festival with its squares, halls and historic buildings filling with events.

The Fondo Ambiente Italiano (Italy's National Trust) sponsors this weekend, during which many of Milan's private, historic palazzi and monuments are open to the public. It is usually held on the last weekend in March or the first weekend in April.

The Formula 1 Italian Gran Prix is held in September at the Autodromo di Monza, north of Milan.

Literally meaning "white night", for one night only (usually in June), shops, bars, restaurants stay open until the early hours of the morning and are accompanied by live music and street shows.

La Scala's opening night on the 7th December takes place while the city is in festive mood - it coincides with celebrations for Milan's patron saint. Piazza della Scala fills with TV cameras and paparazzi who come to record the gathering of Milan's fur-clad celebrities and hoity-toity.

This 10 day film festival in August is one of the biggest events in the film calendar and certainly one of the biggest festivals in Switzerland. The town's Piazza Grande is the location for the main event - a giant screen is erected in the square for outdoor film showings.

Every year for a single day in April, the banks of the Naviglio Grande canal are lined with a profusion of flowers for the Mercato dei Fiori. More than 200 hundred nurseries and horticultural schools from all over Italy take part. The exhibition includes spectacular displays of flowers, plants and garden equipment. The most beautiful and extravagant composition wins a prize.

MiArt, held each year in April, is the trade fair par excellence of Italian art galleries. Exhibits include art and antiques, textiles, handicrafts and glass. The exhibition showcases historic, contemporary and modern art, priding itself on allowing younger 'up and coming' galleries to take part. Artists and artisans, art dealers, collectors, curators and critics all come together for the event. The art fair is held in Fiera Milano City, one of the city's original trade fair locations, in the district of the same name. Cultural and fringe events kick off at the same time throughout the city.

The Milan City Marathon starts at the Fiera di Rho/Pero, crossing the most characteristic parts of the city and ends in Piazza Castello - this new route is much smoother and hopes to allow competitors to achieve personal bests. With over 7,000 participants, it also features a relay, allowing the less energetic to share the route over four legs - they'll even help you find team mates if you don't have a full team!

Castello Sforzesco is the location for a summer season of events and open-air concerts which commence in June and last until August.

During May each year, Cremona holds a festival of Baroque music. Concerts are held mainly at the Teatro Ponchielli, San Sigismondo church and the San Marcellino church. A fantastic event.

Every year, a rich programme of free classical, jazz and opera concerts are held in villas across Milan over a 3-week festival in July.

Oh Bej! Oh Bej! is the wondrous and joyful cry of children, and the name of Milan's top pre-Christmas event held on the 7th December. Taking place in the Piazza Sant'Ambrogio, the fair is held on the feast of the city's patron saint Sant'Ambrogio. It is one of Milan's oldest festivals dating back to a period of the city's great splendour between the 12th and 13th centuries. The occasion involves an enormous street market covering 2.5 km with over 400 stalls. Traditional local foods are for sale - pancakes, roast meats, chestnuts and vin brule as well as antiques, handicrafts and Christmas decorations. On this day, a silver statue of the saint, made by local artisans, is gifted to the city and exhibited in the Duomo cathedral. There is also a special morning service in the Sant' Ambrogio Basilica.

300 artists line the banks of the Naviglio Grande during this exuberant open-air art exhibition held over the 2nd weekend in May.

The Salone Internazionale del Mobile, Milan's International Furniture Fair, is the largest interior design and decoration trade fair in the world. The show takes place for 4 days each April with the event's main base at the Rho but exhibitions, events and parties are held throughout town. The event is considered by interior designers as a leading exposition for the display of new products by furniture manufacturers, designers, lighting concepts and other design items.

During Cultural Heritage week, held in Spring, free entry is offered at all of Italy's publicly owned museums and galleries. Some privately owned heritage sites are also free. Special openings, guided tours, concerts and tastings are among some of the week's events.

Milan's famous fashion week, established in 1958, is one of the four grand-slams of the fashion world (the other prestigious events are held in Paris, London and New York). The fashion events held twice a year in Milan, are hosted by the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana (The National Chamber for Italian Fashion). Approximately 80 designers unveil their autumn/winter collections in late February and their spring/summer collections in September/October. Shows are held at various establishments, by invitation only, and include Dolce & Gabana's sleekly renovated cinema Metropol - http://www.dolcegabbanametropol.com/. The main shows of the week are Womenswear/Milan SS Women Ready to Wear and Milano Moda Donna. The shows dedicated to men are the Menswear and Milano Moda Uomo.

The Festival Settimane Musicali di Stresa was founded in 1961 by the Venetian lawyer Italo Trentinaglia de Daverio inspired by his great love of music. The Trentinaglia family owned a villa in Stresa and often gave hospitality to musical personalities such as Umberto Giordano and Arturo Toscanini who, together with Victor de Sabata, were their most frequent guests. They were all enchanted by the natural beauty and quiet quality of life they found in Stresa, as Stendhal and Wagner had been before them. It was during one of his stays at the villa in the autumn of 1961, that Mr Trentinaglia came up with the idea to create an annual event that would set Stresa on the international musical map. The festival holds outstanding concerts of symphonic and chamber music.

The Stramilano is an internationally-recognised running event held annually in spring. There are three distances: a half marathon with tens of thousands of competitors, a 10 km 'fun run' and the 5 km Stramilanina for junior competitors. Central Milan is closed to traffic for the event. Circumscribing the whole city, the half marathon starts at the Piazza Castello and finishes at the Arena Civica in Parco Sempione. Corso Sempione is a good vantage point from which to glimpse the runners whizzing past.

There are a series of concerts by Lake Maggiore, held over weekends in Spring and Summer, celebrating some fantastic international jazz music. A beautiful setting for some great music.