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50 free Milan trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Milan trivia quiz covers Italy's second city from its Celtic founding to its glass towers. It opens with the landmarks any visitor knows: the cathedral that took nearly six centuries to finish, the opera house that opened with a Salieri premiere, the refectory wall Leonardo painted, the shopping arcade with the bull mosaic worn down by spinning heels, and the castle that holds Michelangelo's last sculpture. From there it digs into history and daily life. Milan was capital of the Western Roman Empire, the place Constantine issued his edict of toleration, the seat of the Visconti and Sforza dukes, and the city Napoleon chose for his coronation as King of Italy. It rose against Austria in 1848, watched Mussolini launch his march on Rome and saw his body strung up in Piazzale Loreto. The quiz also takes in the two football clubs that share the San Siro, the fashion week founded in 1958, the 2015 Expo, the driverless metro, the vertical forest towers, and the food: saffron risotto, breaded veal cutlet and panettone. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on Milan and its monuments, clubs and dishes, and each question links to the page that establishes it. Fifty questions, free, with an explanation after every answer.
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Q 01Milan is the capital of which Italian region?
Lombardy
The region takes its name from the Germanic people who conquered the city in 569 and made Pavia their capital.
Q 02What was Milan's name under the Romans?
Mediolanum
It comes from a Celtic name meaning a settlement in the midst of the plain; the Romans took the city in 222 BC.
Q 03From 284 to 402 AD Milan served as capital of what?
The Western Roman Empire
Diocletian moved the capital from Rome and left his colleague Maximian in charge there; Honorius later fled to Ravenna.
Q 04Which emperor issued the Edict of Milan in AD 313?
Constantine
He was in the city for his sister's wedding to the eastern emperor Licinius; the edict granted tolerance to all religions.
Q 05Who is the patron saint of Milan?
Ambrose
The 4th-century bishop is also patron of beekeepers, and Milan's Catholic rite is still called Ambrosian.
Q 06Which two dynasties ruled the Duchy of Milan in the late Middle Ages and Renaissance?
Visconti and Sforza
Between them came the short-lived Ambrosian Republic, named after the city's saint.
Q 07Which duke built the castle that bears his family name in the 15th century?
Francesco Sforza
He raised it on the remains of a 14th-century fortification; it became one of Europe's largest citadels.
Q 08Which sculpture by Michelangelo, his last, is kept in the Sforza Castle?
The Rondanini Pietà
The castle museums also hold Leonardo's Codex Trivulzianus and Mantegna's Trivulzio Madonna.
Q 09In which year did construction of Milan Cathedral begin?
1386
Archbishop Antonio da Saluzzo started it; the final details were only completed in 1965.
Q 10Roughly how long did Milan Cathedral take to complete?
Nearly six centuries
Napoleon ordered the facade finished in 1805 so he could be crowned there; a statue of him sits on one of the spires in thanks.
Q 11What tops the highest spire of Milan Cathedral?
The Madonnina statue
The polychrome Madonnina was designed by Giuseppe Perego and raised on Carlo Pellicani's spire in 1762.
Q 12How tall is the Madonnina's spire on Milan Cathedral?
108.5 m
It was erected in 1762 to a design by Carlo Pellicani and carries the gilded Madonnina.
Q 13Who was crowned King of Italy in Milan Cathedral in 1805?
Napoleon Bonaparte
He had earlier made Milan capital of the Cisalpine Republic after invading Italy in 1796.
Q 21What do visitors do to the bull mosaic in the Galleria for luck?
Spin three times with a heel on its testicles
The bull is from Turin's coat of arms, and the ritual has worn a hole in the mosaic.
Q 22Who designed the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II?
Giuseppe Mengoni
Beltrami rebuilt the Sforza Castle, Piermarini designed La Scala and Ponti the Pirelli Tower.
Q 23What is the Milanese term for the city's system of canals?
Navigli
There are five, including the Naviglio Grande, and Leonardo da Vinci redesigned and improved them for the Sforzas.
Q 14In which year did La Scala open?
1778
It was originally called il Nuovo Regio Ducale Teatro alla Scala and opened on 3 August.
Q 15Which composer's opera Europa riconosciuta opened La Scala?
Antonio Salieri
The same opera reopened the house in December 2004 after restoration, conducted by Riccardo Muti.
Q 16Who conducted the concert that reopened La Scala in May 1946 after wartime bombing?
Arturo Toscanini
Renata Tebaldi's soprano solo at the concert created a sensation; the house had been badly damaged in 1943.
Q 17Leonardo's The Last Supper is painted on the wall of which building?
The refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie
It covers the end wall of the convent dining hall and measures 460 by 880 centimetres.
Q 18Which patron commissioned The Last Supper?
Ludovico Sforza
Known as il Moro, he later invited Charles VIII of France into Italy, unleashing the Italian Wars.
Q 19Why has The Last Supper deteriorated so badly?
Leonardo used tempera on gesso instead of true fresco
The materials let him revise slowly, but the paint began to flake within decades.
Q 20The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II is Italy's oldest active what?
Shopping arcade
Built between 1865 and 1877, it houses Biffi Caffè, founded in 1867, and the Borsalino hat shop of 1883.
Q 24What happened to Milan's inner ring of canals in the 1930s?
It was covered over
That doomed the north-eastern canals; a 1960s plan for a river port linking to the Po and the Adriatic was shelved.
Q 25The Great Plague of Milan in 1629-31 killed roughly how many of the city's 130,000 people?
60,000
Alessandro Manzoni described the devastation in his novel The Betrothed.
Q 26The Five Days of Milan in 1848 was an uprising against which power?
Austria
It started the First Italian War of Independence; Vienna had regained the region at the Congress of Vienna in 1815.
Q 27Mussolini launched which event from Milan on 28 October 1922?
The March on Rome
His Blackshirts had first rallied in the city's Piazza San Sepolcro.
Q 28In which Milan square was Mussolini's body displayed in April 1945?
Piazzale Loreto
Resistance members had been executed in the same square a year earlier.
Q 29Roughly what share of Italy's GDP comes from Milan's metropolitan area?
20%
The city is home to Borsa Italiana, Italy's main stock exchange, and eight Fortune 500 Europe companies.
Q 30Milan hosted the Universal Exposition in 2015 and in which earlier year?
1906
The 2015 fair was held on a site north-west of the city and drew pavilions from more than 140 countries.