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Today, Milan's conurbation extends well beyond the borders of the city proper and of its special-status provincial authority: its contiguous built-up urban area was home to 5.27 million people in 2015, [10] while its wider metropolitan area, the largest in Italy and fourth largest in the EU, is estimated to have a population of more than 8.2 million.
- Overview
- Character of the city
Milan is the capital city of the region of Lombardy in northern Italy. It is the second largest city by population in Italy, behind Rome. It is Italy’s leading financial centre and its most prosperous manufacturing and commercial city.
Where is Milan located?
Milan lies to the north of the Po River in northern Italy, halfway across the immense plain spreading between the Ticino River, to the west of the city, and the Adda River, to its east. The city’s site is 400 feet (122 metres) above sea level. To the north rise the Alps.
What is Milan known for?
Milan is known as Italy’s “moral capital.” Milanese believe that their positive work ethic has led to Milan becoming a world capital of fashion, design, finance, business services, and media and publishing. Milan is also famous for its art and architecture, as it is the home of Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper and a celebrated Gothic cathedral, the Duomo.
When is Milan Fashion Week?
The fact that Milan is at a distance from much of the rest of Italy, that it is peripheral in a geographic sense, does not explain its position of “second city,” a position it has always vainly fought. Indeed, some of the greatest European capitals are peripheral in this sense. Rather, Milan’s role was the consequence of the immense historical importance and the enormous accumulation of myths and symbols that conferred on Milan’s antagonist, Rome, an inevitable prestige. During the Risorgimento, the 19th-century movement for Italian unification, Rome became the heart of a future anticipated in the collective fantasies of the Italian people.
Yet although Rome remains the political capital of Italy, Milan has long been known as its “moral capital.” When the Milanese assert that their city is the moral capital, they not only express the ancient regionalism typical of all Italy and known as campanilismo (a reference to the church bell of each city), but they also refer to the city’s quality and values, historical as well as contemporary. And if the rest of Italy, Rome included, accepts this statement—or rather accepts the fact that the statement is made—it is because it is more than a simple claim. The claim is justified by contributions in every field—economic, cultural, and ideological—that the city of Milan, in modern times, and particularly since the unification of Italy, has made to the Italian state.
It was partly out of an opposition to the nature of Rome as a capital of government, and thereby the perceived capital of taxation, state spending, and political skullduggery, that Milan’s self-image as Italy’s moral capital was born. This notion was cemented in the late 19th century as an industrializing Milan set itself up as a capital of innovation, production, and efficiency—values the Milanese considered absent in Rome. The city’s sense of moral superiority—particularly the idea that the Milanese people were morally superior because of their positive work ethic—was reinforced as Milan ultimately became Italy’s centre of industry and finance, as well as the motor behind the country’s extraordinary economic development in the 20th century. Today Milan is the richest city in Italy and one of the richest in Europe.
Even though many intellectuals, writers, and artists have abandoned the city for Rome, Milan has succeeded in keeping alive an inquisitiveness and a spirit of polemic that involves not only itself and Rome but all other cities in Italy as well. The increased importance of the mass media in Italy, particularly of the Milan-based television networks, also has favoured the Milanese perspective—though this development has not damaged the poetic image of Rome nor reduced the prosaic character of Milan. Nevertheless, when one remembers that in the 19th century a writer such as Stendhal, one of the giants of French culture, wished to proclaim himself “Milanese” in his epitaph, one must indeed believe in the fascination Milan exerted then, and still does, and of which the city is fully conscious.
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- Centro Storico, best area where to stay in Milan. You won’t find a more immersive, all-encompassing area of Milan than Centro Storico. With its stunning historic buildings, vibrant creative scene, and multitude of landmarks, Centro Storico is the ideal starting point while you gain your Milano bearings.
- Brera, my favourite neighborhood to stay in Milan. Up-and-coming and impossibly stylish, Brera is actually part of the Centro Storico district, and boasts some of Milan’s best boutiques, restaurants, specialty shops, and art galleries.
- Stazione Centrale, convenient with a wide variety of accommodation. Perhaps the greatest attraction in the Stazione Centrale area is the train station itself!
- Porta Nuova, modern Milan and close to everything. Sometimes referred to as encompassing the spirit of modern Milan, the Porta Nuova area was named after the “new gate” constructed during the Napoleonic Era.
- Duomo. Best neighborhood for prime attractions. The Duomo neighborhood surrounds – as you might have guessed – the skyline-defining Milan Cathedral. The magnificent church sits right at the historical center of the city, which means its most famous landmarks are just a few meters from each other – like the gorgeous Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II or the Palazzo Reale, now a favored spot for art and photography exhibitions.
- Brera. Best neighborhood for feeling artsy. Still central and undoubtedly chic (with prices to match), Brera immediately brings to mind the Pinacoteca – a star among Milan museums.
- Quadrilatero and San Babila. Best neighborhood for shopping. The Quadrilatero della Moda (sometimes also known as Quadrilatero d’Oro, the “golden rectangle”) needs little introduction.
- Navigli and Darsena. Best neighborhood for an aperitivo. The Navigli are as Milanese as it gets. Part of a system of canals created to connect the lakes Maggiore and Como with waterways in Switzerland and the rest of the Po Valley, the Naviglio Grande and the Naviglio Pavese (as well the basin they both create, the Darsena) are today hotspots for Milan social life.
Milan Milan is financially the most important city in Italy, and home to the Borsa Italiana stock exchange.It is the second most populous city proper in the country, but sits at the centre of Italy's largest urban and metropolitan area.
The Milan metropolitan area, also known as Grande Milano ("Greater Milan"), is the largest metropolitan area in Italy and the 54th largest in the world. It is the largest transnational metropolitan area [clarification needed] in the EU. [ 2 ] The metropolitan area described in this article is strictly statistical and, contrary to the ...
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The metropolitan area of Milan has a population of 3.26 million with 1.4 million of those living in the city proper. Milan is also the second-most populous city in Italy with only Rome, at 4.3 million, having more people.
