Parco Sempione, Milan's largest public park, sits directly behind Sforza Castle, and the two are inseparable in both geography and history. For centuries, this land was the ducal hunting ground of the Visconti and Sforza families, stocked with deer and, if the frescoes inside the castle are any guide, possibly leopards and animals from Africa. Then the French arrived and used it for military parades, before landscape designer Emilio Alemagna transformed it into the English romantic garden you see today.

At the park's far end stands the Arco della Pace, a Napoleonic triumphal arch later renamed when the Habsburgs reclaimed the city. The Torre Branca offers views across Milan, and the Triennale design museum sits quietly alongside.

VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours trace the park's full arc, from Sforza hunting parties to Napoleonic ambition, connecting it to the castle, the city's canal network, and Leonardo da Vinci's time within these walls.