Quadrilatero della moda in Milan

20 December 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Shopping Reading Time:  3 minutes

Via Monte Napoleone © FlavMi/cc-by-sa-3.0

Via Monte Napoleone © FlavMi/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Quadrilatero della moda (literally “fashion square”), or Via Montenapoleone fashion district, is a high-class shopping district in the centre of the Italian city of Milan, characterised by the presence of numerous boutiques and related retail outlets which represent most of the world’s major fashion houses.   read more…

Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan

11 October 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  8 minutes

© Giovanni Dall'Orto

© Giovanni Dall’Orto

Santa Maria delle Grazie (“Holy Mary of Grace”) is a church and Dominican convent in Milan, northern Italy, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The church contains the mural of The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci, which is in the refectory of the convent. Duke of Milan Francesco I Sforza ordered the construction of a Dominican convent and church at the site of a prior chapel dedicated to the Marian devotion of St Mary of the Graces. The main architect, Guiniforte Solari, designed the convent (the Gothic nave), which was completed by 1469. Construction of the church took decades. Duke Ludovico Sforza decided to have the church serve as the Sforza family burial site, and rebuilt the cloister and the apse, both completed after 1490. Ludovico’s wife Beatrice was buried in the church in 1497.   read more…

Teatro alla Scala in Milan

29 January 2020 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Museums, Exhibitions, Opera Houses, Theaters, Libraries Reading Time:  7 minutes

© Yair Haklai/cc-by-sa-3.0

© Yair Haklai/cc-by-sa-3.0

La Scala; abbreviation in Italian of the official name Teatro alla Scala is an opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the Nuovo Regio Ducale Teatro alla Scala (New Royal-Ducal Theatre alla Scala). The premiere performance was Antonio Salieri‘s Europa riconosciuta.   read more…

Milan Cathedral

2 October 2019 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  17 minutes

Milan Cathedral from Piazza del Duomo © Øyvind Holmstad/cc-by-sa-4.0

Milan Cathedral from Piazza del Duomo © Øyvind Holmstad/cc-by-sa-4.0

Milan Cathedral is the cathedral church of Milan, Lombardy, Italy. Dedicated to the Nativity of St Mary (Santa Maria Nascente), it is the seat of the Archbishop of Milan, currently Archbishop Mario Delpini. The cathedral took nearly six centuries to complete. It is the largest church in Italy (the larger St. Peter’s Basilica is in the State of Vatican City), the third largest in Europe and the fourth largest in the world.   read more…

The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan

1 August 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, House of the Month, Shopping Reading Time:  6 minutes

© Tango7174/cc-by-sa-4.0

© Tango7174/cc-by-sa-4.0

The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II is one of the world’s oldest shopping malls. Housed within a four-story double arcade in central Milan, the Galleria is named after Vittorio Emanuele II, the first king of the Kingdom of Italy. It was designed in 1861 and built by Giuseppe Mengoni between 1865 and 1877.   read more…

Milano Centrale Train Station in Milan

1 July 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, House of the Month Reading Time:  7 minutes

Milano Centrale, seen from Pirelli Tower © Kiban/cc-by-sa-3.0

Milano Centrale, seen from Pirelli Tower © Kiban/cc-by-sa-3.0

Milano Centrale is the main railway station of Milan, and one of the main railway stations in Europe. The station is a railway terminus and was officially inaugurated in 1931 to replace the old central station (1864), which was a transit station and could not handle the new traffic caused by the opening of the Simplon tunnel in 1906. The station has 24 tracks. Every day about 320,000 passengers pass through the station using about 500 trains, for an annual total of 120 million passengers. The station is served by national and international routes, with both long-distance and regional lines.   read more…

Milan, Italy’s moral capital and gateway to the world

30 April 2011 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Architecture Reading Time:  9 minutes

Milan Cathedral - Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II - Royal Palace of Milan © Dodo

Milan Cathedral – Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II – Royal Palace of Milan © Dodo

Milan is a city in Italy and the capital of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1,318,000, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza, is one of Europe’s largest with an estimated population of 4 million spread over 1,980 km2, with a consequent population density of more than 2,000 inhab./km2. The growth of many suburbs and satellite settlements around the city proper following the great economic boom of the 1950-60s and massive commuting flows suggest that socioeconomic linkages have expanded well beyond the boundaries of the city proper and its agglomeration, creating a metropolitan area of 7.4 million population expanded all over the central section of Lombardy region. It has been suggested that the Milan metropolitan area is part of the so-called Blue Banana, the area of Europe with the highest population and industrial density.   read more…

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