San Siro Stadium (Giuseppe Meazza)

San Siro is the most famous football stadium in Italy — an 80,018-seat colosseum shared by AC Milan and Inter Milan, two of the most successful clubs in European football, who play their home games on the same pitch in alternate weeks. The stadium, officially named after the legendary Italian footballer Giuseppe Meazza, has hosted Champions League finals, World Cup matches, and some of the most dramatic moments in football history, and the atmosphere on derby night (when Milan plays Inter) is one of the most intense sporting experiences on Earth.

The stadium was built in 1926 and has been expanded and redesigned several times, most dramatically for the 1990 World Cup when the third tier and the distinctive cylindrical towers were added, giving San Siro its current industrial-Gothic appearance. The towers — four concrete cylinders at the corners, supporting spiralling external ramps that carry 80,000 fans to their seats — have become architectural icons, and the view of the stadium from outside on a match night, when the towers are lit and the crowd's roar is audible from blocks away, is genuinely cinematic.

The San Siro Museum and Tour takes visitors through the changing rooms, the tunnel, and onto the pitch — standing on the same grass where Maldini, Ronaldo, Zanetti, and Kaká played is a pilgrimage for football fans. The stadium's future is uncertain — both clubs have plans for new stadiums, and San Siro may be demolished, which has generated passionate debate in a city that treats its football cathedrals with the same reverence it gives its actual cathedrals.