Milan's cultural scene boasts interesting and diverse offerings for classical purists, as well as for those interested in the avant-garde. A visit to La Scala should be top of the billing for foreign visitors. Non-Italian speakers should not ignore the stage too, as the Teatro Piccolo offers excellent performances all year round.

Listings are best obtained from the pullout in the Corriere della Sera (website: www.vivimilano.corriere.it) on Wednesdays. The free monthly information programme, Milano Mese, in Italian, has listings and is available from the tourist information office and most hotels. The English language HelloMilan and Milan Where, When, How are available free from hotels, bars and the Duomo tourist office. Tickets for most events are available for purchase at La Prevendita, Virgin Megastore, Piazza Duomo 8 and Last Minute Tour, Fiorucci, Galleria Passarella 1. Tickets are also available from Ticketweb (tel: 02 4885 7332; website: www.ticketweb.it).

Music: Opera lovers know the Teatro alla Scala, La Scala for short, Via Filodrammatici 2 (tel: 02 861 147 or 7200 3744; website: www.teatroallascala.org) the world over. The main ticket office remains under the Piazza Duomo, admittance from the stairs of the Duomo Metro. Milan's respected symphony orchestra, the Orchestra Verdi (website: www.orchestrasinfonica.milano.it), founded in 1993 and conducted by Riccardo Chailly, frequently performs concerts in the Auditorium di Milano, Corso San Gottardo (tel: 02 8338 9401; website: www.laverdi.org). Another illustrious venue for classical concerts is the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi, Via Conservatorio 12 (tel: 02 762 1101; website: www.consmilano.it). The Cantelli Orchestra (website: www.orchestracantelli.it) plays at the Conservatory.

Theatre: Milan has become a driving force behind Italian drama since the foundation of the Teatro Piccolo by Giorgio Strehler and Paolo Grassi in 1947. The company puts on a wide repertory of international, classical and experimental drama in three different theatres. Audiences can choose between programmes for the Teatro Grassi, Via Rovello, the experimental theatre Teatro Studio, Via Rivoli, and the Teatro Strehler, Largo Greppi. The box office is at Via Rovello 2 (tel: 8488 00304, in Italy only or 02 5748 0889; website: www.piccoloteatro.org).

Dance: The home of classical ballet in Milan is also at La Scala (see Music above), which is also the base for its renowned ballet school, the Scuola di Ballo del Teatro alla Scala, Via Verdi 1. CRT (Centro di Ricerca per il Teatro) at Teatro dell'Arte, Viale Alemagna 6 (tel: 02 8901 1644; website: www.teatrocrt.it), is Milan's main advocate for contemporary dance.

Film: Italians share a great passion for the cinema and Milan's city centre has over 20 cinemas. The area around Corso Vittorio Emanuele is a good spot for cinemas with the latest releases. For art movies, Cineteca Museo, Palazzo Dugnani, Via Daniele Manin 2 (tel: 02 2900 5659; website: www.cinetecamilano.it), is a good option, while English-language films are shown on Monday at Anteo, Via Milazzo 9 (tel:  02 659 7732), on Tuesday at Arcobaleno, Viale Tunisia 11 (tel: 02 2940 6054), and on Thursday at Cinema Centrale, Via Torino 30 (tel: 02 874 826).

Vittorio De Sica's socially conscious fairy tale, Miracolo a Milano (Miracle in Milan, 1950) includes surreal elements like the boy Toto being found in a cabbage patch and his magical dove that can grant wishes. Lichino Visconti's Rocco e i Suoi Fratelli (Rocco and His Brothers, 1960), starring Alain Delon, describes the problems of a poor Sicilian farming family who move to Milan; although primarily set in the northern industrial suburb of Bovisa, there are scenes in the centre of the city including a dramatic one near the outside top of the Duomo. There was a brief revival of interest in Milan in the 1980s, although most films merely had small sections where the characters were leaving the city for somewhere else, as in the 1989 film Marrakech Express. Michele Sordillo's Acquario (late 1990s) is a triptych of stories concerning love, care for the aged and problems arising from having someone stay in one's apartment.

Literary Notes: Modern Milan is a major centre for the publishing industry and not surprisingly retains a keen interest in literature. Visitors to the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II may happily while away an hour or two as they explore the bookshops Zanichielli and Ricordi. Academics are sure to head to the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, next to the art gallery, to study the writings of Leonardo da Vinci and other historic texts in its significant collection.

Alessandro Manzoni is the best-known Milanese author. His novel I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed, 1827), is a tale of two lovers set against times of war and pestilence in Lombardy during the 1620s. Gabriele D'Annunzio's early autobiographical novel Il Piacere (The Child of Pleasure, 1898) is a classic of the decadence movement; his poetry is also excellent. Part of Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms takes place in Milan. Many Italian authors have since ended up in Milan, including the 1959 Nobel literary prize winner Salvatore Quasimodo, a Sicilian poet who is buried in Milan's Monumental Cemetery.

The most important Italian literary event of the year, the Bagutta Prize, originated in Milan's Bagutta Ristorante (see Restaurants section), Via Bagutta, where the founders of the Literary Review (Fiera Letteraria) used to eat and where they founded the prize in 1925. John Foot's Milan Since the Miracle (2001) looks at the remarkable emergence of Milan in the modern age.