Milan · Food

Inside Milano Centrale on the Via Sammartini side, open every day 6.30am to 11pm. It is a hall of individual counters — bread, pasta, fried fish, cheese — rather than one kitchen, so it works for an odd-hours meal before a train. Metro M2 or M3 to Centrale FS.

Milan's Chinatown, pedestrianised and ten minutes north-west of the Castello. Hand-pulled noodles, Cantonese roast meats, bubble tea and a growing row of Sichuan places, at half the price of anywhere inside the Cerchia dei Navigli. Busiest at weekend lunchtimes.

A panzerotto counter a minute behind the Duomo, selling fried and baked turnovers filled with tomato and mozzarella for a couple of euro. There is no seating and the queue runs along the pavement; you eat standing in the street. Cash moves fastest.

A pasticceria trading since 1824, and the place to understand the Milanese habit of a standing coffee with something sweet rather than a sit-down breakfast. Panettone is sold all year here, not only at Christmas, and it costs a great deal more than the supermarket version.