Most tourists head to Milan to see the famous Dome, visit galleries and historical sites, but…we aren´t like most tourists! As you all know, we are a football family, so during our visit to the Italian metropolis we first headed to the famous San Siro football stadium.
Stadio San Siro, or Stadio Giuseppe Meazza (named after the famous player who played for both Inter and AC), with a capacity of 80,018 spectators, is one of the biggest in Europe and the biggest in Italy. Two teams from the Italian football league share this stadium: Internazionale (commonly known as Inter) and AC Milan. Btw. can you imagine that Sparta and Slavia would share one stadium? I can´t!
But a few weeks before the visit, we experienced one disappointment (fortunately the only one). We intended to surprise our kids by visiting the stadium during the football match. We knew that at the time of our visit the last match of the season (Inter against Udinese) will be played. The kick-off of the match was great: 15:00, so there was nothing more than to wait than to put tickets on the Internet for on-line sale. But, on this day, they changed the game time to 21:00. As I wrote, it was the last match of the season and therefore all kick-offs had been synchronized to one time, unfortunately, totally unsuitable for us 🙁 And there was only hope that we would enjoy our visit without watching the match.
How to get there
You can reach the stadium by the M5 metro line (local call it “lila”), from the station “San Siro Stadio” (this is the terminate station so you can´t miss it) it´s a short walk to the stadium. The line M5 is brand new, plus trains are run without a train driver, which made the kids absolutely excited. Just imagine, you rush through the tunnel, you pass the oncoming trains – just better than the roller coaster! 🙂
To get to the ticket office, you have to go to the left to the Gate No.8. The ticket is common to both the museum and the stadium. For adults, it costs 17euro, reduced admission 12euro, children up to 6 years have free admission.
Museum
The ground floor is dedicated to the stadium – its construction, reconstructions and, of course, the famous games and the players who played there.
On the first floor, you will learn about the achievements of both teams, whether in the Italian league or in international competitions, e.t. the AC Milan´s victory in the UEFA Champions League in 2007. In the gallery, you can admire the jerseys of both teams and Italian national team players.
PS: After entering the museum, do not throw away the ticket – you will still need to be able to enter the stadium!
Stadium
After entering the stadium, we first went through the press zone where the players give interviews after the game.
When we found out that we could enter the changing rooms of both teams, we started to have goosebumps. Who isn´t a football fan probably won´t understand our feelings and our thoughts, “OMG, am I really entering the AC Milan´s changing room? Like really? OMG, I´m here! Seriously! Is it not just a dream? OMG…
Helpful staff answered our tricky questions here and told us a few interesting facts. Did you know, for example, that both clubs don´t even train on the San Siro Stadium, but have their training centers in the north of Italy at the border with Switzerland? Unfortunately, we haven´t been told the exact location 🙁
If we had goosebumps entering the changing rooms, you can probably imagine how excited we were entering the stadium itself! I mean, one knows this place only from a TV screen, right?!
Fan shop
Here you can buy all sorts of souvenirs with the logos of both clubs – starting from keychains, ending with the latest collection of jerseys. You can also have your name printed on the jersey. Here we were good parents who sometimes pamper their children and bought our boys a small table foosball.
I must say that for us the visit to the San Siro stadium has been the biggest football experience so far. And what was yours? Tell me in the comments! And do not forget to save this photo on Pinterest!
10 Comments. Leave new
Wow this looks like a sport enthusiasts dream come true. I didn’t know about this in Milan. It’s always great to learn new things that are so close by train. It looks like you had a great time!
Thanks for your comment Kate. In my upcoming post, you can read more what to do with kids in Milan! So stay tuned!
Ohhh very unfortune about the match! That would have been the perfect surprise for your boys! Milan is not far away so perhaps next season?
I have to two biggest footboll experience. My first one is when our team won the cup. I was like 11 years old and the star in the team! I used to play from I was 10 to 18 and actually join a lady team in Lausanne but it didnt last long. I even thought of joining one lady team here in Bumplitz but never got the courage…
My second : 1994 when Sweden came third on worldcup in USA! I remember it was one of the hottest summer we ever had and it was amazing watching the match outdoor on bigscreen with thousand of people cheering for the same team. And they won…priceless summer!?
Oh, that´s pretty cool you played football! I always wanted to, but in our country, it wasn´t so common to have girls teams.
And I can also remember the day when the Czech Republic played in final of the Europe Cup in 1996. Unfortunately, they lost 🙁
PS: my older son loves Zlatan 😉
Oh my goodness, athis must be ny socer fan’s personal idea of heaven!! You must have been so excited! Bummer they postponed the game to a later hour. 9pm is definitely not convenient for families with kids. Looks like you still had a fantastic time!
We are the same about hockey. We actually put together our road trips according to hockey arenas our young fan has not visited yet. This fall it’s going to be the Edmonton Oiler’s 😉
That´s absolutely awesome plan going to the Edmonton Oiler´s! My older son plays hockey too and a few months ago, I had to print out the map with all the NHL teams! But on the contrary, what a good way to learn geography, right? 😉