Saint Ambrose Basilica, Milan. Courtesy of IAT Ufficio Informazioni e Accoglienza Turistica Milano

Oh Bej! Oh Bej!

When: Dec 2008 (annual)

Where: Basilica of Saint Ambrose

Opening Hours: 8am-7.30pm

Milan's patron saint is celebrated annually with a beautiful Christmas market full of sweets and typical products. The "Oh Bej! Oh Bej!" fair, held every year in the area surrounding the Basilica di San Ambrogio, is one of the main annual folkloric events in the city.

The tastes, sounds and smells of this beautiful and evocative Christmas market transform the square of the Basilica into a richly textured oasis of Christmas. Stalls sell local food products, doughnuts, sweet pancakes, chestnuts and spun sugar. The market is open from early morning until late at night.

Kids love the fair - in fact, its name derives from its popularity with children. Local children used to go around the market exclaiming "che belli! che belli!" ("so beautiful! so beautiful!"), which in the local Milanese dialect ends up sounding more or less like "Oh Bej! Oh Bej!".

Every year the day of St Ambrose also coincides with the opening of the new season at La Scala, so if you manage to get tickets, why not finish the day with a trip to the grand opening gala?

Saint Ambrose, patron saint of Milan, was a 4th-century governor of the city. His saint's day celebrates the day he was consecrated as bishop, at the tender age of 34. He is said to have had a considerable gift for rhetoric and public speaking, which earned him the nickname of "honey-tongued one'". This led to the use of bees and beehives in his iconography, which in turn probably gave rise to the legend that in his childhood a swarm of bees had landed on his face without stinging him. In some versions the swarm is even said to have come out of his mouth, prophesying his future gift of oration.

Tourist Office

Milan Tourist Information Office
Piazza Duomo 19/a (basement)
Phone: +39 02 7740 4343 (in UK +44 (0) 20 7408 1254)
Fax: +39 02 725 24 350
E-mail: , iat.info@provincia.milano.it