Two farming villages — Cinisello and Balsamo — united in 1928 and swept up by the boom: today it is one of the main towns of the Milanese hinterland, third in the metropolitan city after Milan and Sesto San Giovanni. Its noble card is Villa Ghirlanda Silva, an eighteenth-century residence with one of the first English gardens in Italy, which houses the Museum of Contemporary Photography: the first Italian public museum entirely devoted to photography.
There is a border detail that surprises: although it is stuck to Milan, Cinisello does not touch it. Between the two runs a thin strip of the Parco Nord, the great park grown on the former Breda works, which the hinterland built for itself. The rest of the territory is almost entirely built up, on the southern edge of Brianza. With the underground at its boundary and Milan twenty minutes away, it works as an inexpensive base for visiting the city.
Santuario di San Martino and 3 more
Risotto alla Milanese
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Next up: Saint Ambrose, patron of the town born from the union of Cinisello and Balsamo, Monday 7 December
Nearest airport: Milano Linate, 13 km away
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📅 Every year, on 7 December
Cinisello Balsamo celebrates Saint Ambrose, patron of Cinisello, on 7 December; the current church dedicated to him was built by the community in thanksgiving after the plague of 1630-32, while the nearby village of Balsamo venerates Saint Martin as its own patron.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Outside Cinisello Balsamo, but an easy day trip away.
