Outdoor Happy Hour in Milan

In case you don’t know where to enjoy a relaxing happy hour or are uncertain on the best location among your favourites, you don’t have to worry. We’ve rounded up a selection of our go-to destinations in a practical list.

Located just a few metres from the Naviglio, in Milan’s renovated dockyard Vista Darsena offers a relaxed, trendy high-quality aperitivo. Bubbly, cocktails or draught beer are accompanied by a selection of snacks. If you happen to drop by at around 9.30pm, you can opt for a ‘Piadella’, a typical artisanal oven-baked wrap, served hot and topped with mouth-watering ingredients.

The Rotonda della Besana, a late Baroque complex, is rarely included in tourist itineraries but is a unique place that’s well worth a visit. The good news is that you can kill two birds with one stone, by treating yourself to an aperitivo at the Rotonda Bistrot, located in the heart of this monument. At happy hour, after ordering a drink, you’ll be given a small paper bag filled with focaccia and bite-sized sandwiches. Specialities include vintage and sake-based cocktails that can be drunk while sitting on the lawn. This is a particularly child-friendly location, where you’ll see children running around and playing on the grass because the Rotonda also houses the Museo dei Bambini.

On the top floor of the Hotel Milano Scala, Milan’s first green, zero-emission hotel, you’ll find the Sky Terrace Bar, offering a wrap-around view of Milan’s skyline. Its rooftop vegetable garden, planted with herbs, vegetables and edible flowers, are all used by the chef for the organic finger food served with your aperitivo. In addition to classic cocktails, the bar offers a selection of organic wines. The terrace is also open to outside guests, but booking is compulsory.

At Cascina Cuccagna, a renovated 18th- century complex, conceived as a centre of social and cultural innovation, you’ll find Un Posto a Milano. Although this venue is open throughout the day, it’s particularly picturesque at the aperitivo hour, when you can sit in the courtyard of the old farmhouse, on the terrace, or at one of the long wooden tables set out in the vegetable garden, amidst rows of vegetables and fruit trees. The drinks menu features cocktails, wine and beer accompanied by hot or cold dishes, or a selection of pizzas and focaccia prepared in-house using organic flour.