The Vertical Forest

Best Time to Visit

Late afternoon into early evening is ideal. The low sun lights the glass towers and the trees of the Bosco Verticale, and the illuminated spire of the UniCredit Tower and the lit facade of Stazione Centrale come alive at dusk. Spring and autumn are most comfortable; the district is largely open and shadeless, so avoid the midday heat in high summer. The route works any day of the week, since every stop is a free public space or viewed from the street.

Pro Tips

• •Start at Piazza Gae Aulenti, which sits directly on top of Milano Porta Garibaldi station, so arriving by train or metro drops you right at stop one.
• •The Bosco Verticale is best photographed from across the street or from the edge of the Library of Trees park, where you can frame both towers and their greenery at once.
• •None of the towers are enterable: the UniCredit Tower, Bosco Verticale, and Pirelli Tower are read from the street, so plan the walk as an outdoor architecture route, not a ticketed one.
• •Take a slow loop through a couple of the circular forests in the Library of Trees rather than cutting straight across; the design only makes sense when you walk between the round groves.
• •The leg from the Library of Trees to the Pirelli Tower is the longest stretch of the walk, so treat it as an intentional transect out of the new district and toward the older one.
• •End inside Stazione Centrale by walking up onto the concourse under the steel vault; it is free to enter and the scale is best felt from below the arch.