Milan mayor Giuseppe Sala greeted the Dalai Lama at the city's Linate airport, and the Buddhist leader then met Milan's Archbishop, Cardinal Angelo Scola, and made a visit to Milan's Tibetan centre.
He also spoke to students at the city's university, before officially being made a Milanese citizen in a ceremony at the Teatro degli Arcimboldi, a theatre and opera house.
Officials presented the spiritual leader with a symbolic key to the city and a scroll representing Milan's freedom, local media reported.
The Dalai Lama's visit was met with protest from China, with the Beijing government announcing at a press conference on Thursday: "We are strongly against [the Dalai Lama having] any contact or meetings with officials of other countries."
The 80-year-old monk is currently on a tour of Europe and visited the Czech Republic and Slovakia earlier this week.