San Siro

The San Siro Stadium

The two city rivals AC Milan and Internazionale share the colossal stadium. AC Milan fans usually refer to the stadium as San Siro – named after the district the stadium is located in – and Inter Milan fans refer to it as the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, mostly to tease AC Milan with the fact that Giuseppe Meazza had a stronger connection with Inter. The stadium opened in 1926 with an inauguration match between AC Milan and Internazionale. Inter won the match with a result of 3-6. The stadium was named after football player Giuseppe Meazza in 1979, who played for both clubs. The stadium was called ‘Nuovo Stadio Calcistico San Siro’ before the renaming took place. AC Milan was the only user of the stadium for a long time until Inter Milan was allowed to play at the stadium, too, in 1947.

The construction of San Siro

AC Milan’s president wished to erect a stadium in the same area as a horse track race. Architects designed a stadium which would only be used to play football in, without an athletics track - which was a common phenomenon in Italian football stadiums back then. Big plans were made after World War II to expand the stadium; the aim was to increase the capacity to 150,000. This appeared to be unrealistic and unsafe while renovating, so their plans changed and they strived for a capacity of 100,000 but this failed, too. Despite of the failed attempts to expand the stadium, it's the biggest one in Italy now. San Siro was modernised before the start of the 1990 World Cup.

Visit the San Siro Stadium?

There are several possibilities to get to San Siro from Milan’s city centre. You could, for example, travel with metro five or 16. When travelling with metro five, you disembark the vehicle at stop San Siro Stadio or San Siro Ippodromo. Did you board metro 16? Then you should disembark at stop Piazzale Exum. You could also hop on bus 49 towards San Siro. Then you should hop off at bus stop Via Harar. Make sure you leave well in advance to the stadium because it’s most likely to be extremely busy on matchdays in Milan. Would you like to visit a football match in the biggest stadium of Italy? Then you should book your football trip to either AC Milan or Internazionale and visit the San Siro Stadium!