The most exclusive sports clubs in Milan
From the historic red clay of Bonacossa to the stables of San Siro, by way of 18th-century palazzi and fencing halls: a guide to where sport in Milan means belonging.
Milan is a city of belonging, and its sports clubs are where this unspoken code is clearest. Admission comes through a member’s recommendation, a committee vote and an unlisted joining fee: leisure here is serious business and a token of shared loyalty. Behind the gates lie 19th-century fencing halls, clubhouses designed by masters of 20th-century Milanese architecture, clay courts that hosted the earliest Italian Open championships and stables handed down between noble families. These are places where competition is just one element alongside social ritual, curated interiors and clubhouse lunches. We have selected the ten clubs that best capture this side of Milan: ten coordinates for understanding sport as a language of belonging.
Aspria Harbour Club
Via Cascina Bellaria, 19
In San Siro, seven hectares of parkland shelter one of the city’s most comprehensive multi-sport clubs. Opened in 1993 and joining the Aspria Collection in 2009, it has the feel of a European country club transplanted into Milan: 18 tennis courts across four surfaces, 14 of which are covered in winter, four padel courts, a heated outdoor Olympic swimming pool and a 25-metre indoor pool. The spa features a Finnish sauna, scented steam baths, an ice room with an ice fountain and treatment cabins opening out onto greenery. The FIT-recognised Tennis Academy, with its advanced school led by Francesca Schiavone, sets the sporting benchmark. The restaurant with its panoramic terraces overlooking the pools is the club’s other focal point: where belonging is felt as much at the table as on court.
Tennis Club Milano Alberto Bonacossa
Via Giuseppe Arimondi, 15
Founded in 1893 as the Lawn Tennis Club, it has been based in Via Arimondi, in the Sempione area, since 1923, in a clubhouse designed for Count Alberto Bonacossa: opened in 1923 to plans by Giovanni Muzio, with Neo-Palladian influences and architecture that remains heritage-listed today. The 16 courts, predominantly red clay, hosted the first five editions of the Italian Open and 20 Davis Cup ties for the national team between 1928 and 1960. Since 1959 the club has organised the Trofeo Bonfiglio, the international junior tournament where Lendl and Alcaraz won the singles and Djokovic claimed doubles in 2003. Admission is governed by club statutes, distinguishing between full members and frequent visitors: a bar that Italian tennis still regards as one of the highest in the country.
Golf Club Milano
Viale Mulini San Giorgio, 7, Parco di Monza, Monza (MB)
For Milan’s golfers, the ultimate reference point lies inside the Parco Reale di Monza. The club was established on 8 May 1928 on the initiative of Senator Giuseppe Bevione, backed by the Durini, Visconti di Modrone and Borromeo families: nine holes designed by James Peter Gannon, expanded to 18 in 1933 and to 27 in 1958 by Giulio Cavalsani. The three courses—Red, Yellow and Blue—wind through the park’s woodland, one of the largest walled historic estates in Europe. The clubhouse, designed by Vietti and Buzzi in 1958, is considered among the finest on the continent, complete with wood panelling, a panoramic terrace and traditional Lombard cooking. It has hosted eight editions of the Italian Open, with champions from Molinari to Hatton, and will host it again in 2028 for its centenary. Membership requires introduction and a waiting list.
Castello Tolcinasco Golf Club
Località Tolcinasco, Pieve Emanuele (MI)
Just outside Milan, a 16th-century castle of the D’Adda family, among the finest examples of a fortified farmhouse in the lower Milanese plains, forms the heart of a resort built around its historic courtyard. The golf club, opened in 1993 under Arnold Palmer’s supervision, features 27 championship holes designed by the American legend, plus nine executive holes, spread across some 140 hectares. Between 2004 and 2008 it hosted five consecutive editions of the Italian Open. The clubhouse includes the MAIO restaurant, offering chef-led cooking overlooking the green and the pool, alongside a spa and wellness centre, gym, driving range and pro shop. Milan’s financial world embraced it early on: here, golf, business and leisure share the very same courtyard.
Centro Ippico Lombardo
Via Fetonte, 21
The stables on Via Fetonte, adjoining the San Siro racecourse, have hosted horses and riders since 1930, initially as the Scuola Sansonetto and from 1952 under their current name. The facilities, renovated in 1972, are arranged around twin indoor riding arenas and the large Campo Castelbarco, granted on loan by the Ceschina family: show jumping, dressage, eventing, a pony club and equine therapy. With roughly 100 stabled horses and over 300 registered members, its history is intertwined with leading Milanese business dynasties that have steered the club over decades. Olympians including Mario Turner and Susanna Bordone trained here, and the Trofei Invernali return every winter, having launched in 1972 even before the FEI World Cup. A FISE Federal School of Excellence since 2003, it received the Ambrogino d’Oro in 2020.
Canottieri Milano
Alzaia Naviglio Grande, 160
On the Alzaia del Naviglio Grande, along the stretch leading from San Cristoforo into the city, Società Canottieri Milano has occupied one of Milan’s most distinctive sports venues on the water since 1929. It is Italy’s oldest multi-sport club: founded on 15 October 1890 following a split from Forza e Coraggio led by Guido Alessandro Bonnet, it introduced rowing well before AC Milan and Inter existed. Spread across some 24,000 square metres overlooking the canal are a 50-metre Olympic swimming pool with its iconic diving tower (opened in summer 1958), six red clay tennis courts, a rowing gym with a rowing tank and a traditional Milanese bocce court. There is also an excellent restaurant and cocktail bar.
Aero Club Milano
Aeroporto di Bresso, Via Gramsci 1, Bresso (MI)
For anyone learning to fly in Milan, Bresso is the place to go. Founded on 13 September 1926 by members of the Automobile Club di Milano—first based in Taliedo, then at Linate, and operating out of the Bresso airfield since 1960—Aero Club Milano is among the longest-standing aviation clubs in Italy. The flight school trains candidates for private and commercial pilot licences through PPL and CPL courses, supported by a fleet spanning Tecnam P2008 and Cessna 172 trainers, a twin-engine Piper PA30 Twin Comanche and a vintage 1947 Piper J3C-65. With over 480 active members, an aerobatics tradition revived in 2017 and the annual Festa dell’Aria drawing thousands of visitors, the barrier to entry here is technical as well as financial: joining requires earning your wings.
Yacht Club Milano
Piazzale Antonio Baiamonti, 4
A landlocked city invents its own nautical salon. Yacht Club Milano, established in September 2006 on Piazzale Baiamonti in the Porta Volta area, has served for nearly 20 years as a meeting point for Milanese boat owners and entrepreneurs: a haven just a few stops from the Duomo, with teams competing on international regatta circuits and partnerships with the Lega Navale Italiana for skipper licensing and the Collegio della Vela in Santa Margherita Ligure. Here, exclusivity is not about courts or fencing halls, but yacht ownership and the lifestyle that goes with it: the boat in Portofino or Tigullio, the club in Milan, the regattas elsewhere. It is a sense of belonging measured in nautical miles, not square metres.
