http://www.leonardoamilano.com Discover all the financial centre of Milan, from Cordusio Square to Piazza Affari. Caption: We are now in Milan's financial district, as remarked by the imposing facades of the headquarters of banks and insurance companies. With a 5 minutes walk you can reach Piazza Affari, with the Milan Stock Exchange, Italy's most important and one of the most important in Europe with London, Frankfurt and Paris. In front of the stock exchange lies one of Milan's most controversial monuments, by the famous Italian contemporary artist Maurizio Cattelan. I won't anticipate what it is, I just suggest you to go there... and then make your own opinion about it! Piazza Cordusio is connected to the Duomo square by a short pedestrian street where you can find one of the few remains of the Medieval Milan: the Palazzo della Ragione, which was built in the XIII century to host the meetings of Milan's self government. Underneath the palace there is an open vaulted space which was used as an open-air market, and has an interesting architectural feature you should try! if you whisper near a column, another person can hear your whisper from the opposite column. Quite a useful feature for secret communications between merchants! Near Piazza Cordusio you will find one of the hidden gems of Milan: the beautiful Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, one of the most important art museums in the whole region. Here you can find artworks by the most celebrated Italian painters, like Botticelli, Caravaggio, Leonardo da Vinci (the beautiful portrait of a musician) and Raffaello. In the Pinacoteca you can also visit one of the halls of its celebrated Library, which was of the first public libraries in Europe. The Library owns the most important and comprehensive collection of original drawings by Leonardo da Vinci, the Codex Atlanticus. Before leaving the area, I'd like to point out another hidden gem of Milan, the small church of S.Maria presso S.Satiro, on the left hand side of Torino street, leaving the Duomo Square behind you. Here you can find one of the most imaginative architectural tricks in the history of architecture: the impressive trompe l'oeil designed by Renaissance architect Donato Bramante to simulate a nave where he did not have the physical space to build a real one. Don't be discouraged by the difficulty of finding the small church in the busy Torino street: you'll thank me afterwards!

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