About Milan
Milano is universally known as Italy’s financial capital, in addition to being the reference point for global fashion and design. And not only, Milan is a city full of surprises, capable of constant self-regeneration thanks to its unrelenting strive towards the future. Of Celtic foundation, it has a glorious past even if not easily perceivable. Capital of the Roman Empire in the West, it still preserves the remains of the Imperial walls and its impressive circus, even if great part of the Roman city is still concealed under its surface. For several centuries it dominated events in Northern Italy experiencing the eras and costumes shaped by its leaders, the Visconti and Sforza families and later Spanish, Austrian and French rulers, never losing its identity. Milano was, from the Middle Ages to the beginning of the 1900s, a small Venice, characterized by a network of artificial water canals that so fascinated Italian and foreign intellectuals and that are still visible today in alluring, Romantic corners. And yet Milan does not lack in examples of futuristic architecture, like the new generation skyscrapers recently built in the Garibaldi district, which have earned prestigious international recognition.
What to do in Milan
Undoubtedly, the panorama of Milan is very varied, the urban fabric is strewn with unmissable monuments and exceptional museums among which the Castello Sforzesco and the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, that treasure works from the great masters, Mantenga, Raffaello, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Caravaggio and many others. Moreover, you can easily find the best of fashion and international design, strolling along its very central “Golden quadrilateral”, or following the traces of the greatest genius of all times, Leonardo Da Vinci, who lived and worked in the city for nearly 20 years. Not only, in Milan you can visit the most copied Opera Theatre in the world, the Scala, contemplating the faces of those composers, musicians and opera singers who, from that same stage, conquered the hearts and souls of their contemporaries, listening to curious anecdotes from their private lives…And for the food lovers, an unmissable date is with the aperitivo ritual, to savour at a sheltered table in the Brera district or in the kaleidoscopic Navigli scene. In addition, for the more demanding palates, the city reserves artisanal pastry shops and starred restaurants in which to taste revisited local dishes or secret traditional recipes, often served in exclusive locations
Quotes
"Yes, Milan truly is beautiful, my friend, and believe me, sometimes you really need a resolute will to resist its seduction and go on with your work. " Giovanni Verga, 1873."Milan is the exact miniature of a great city; in smaller scale it contains all which characterizes great capitals".
Iginio Ugo Tarchetti, Racconti fantastici, 1869
"Glorious. More satisfactory to me than St. Peters. Ascended, - far below people in the turrets of open tracery look like flies caught in a cob web. - The groups of angels on points of pinnacles and everywhere. View from summit. Might well host of heaven upon top of Milan cathedral."
Hermann Melville, 1857
chapel of San Bernardino alle Ossa (detail)
Sforza Castle
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