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Tourist Infos -
MILAN - Tourism and culture
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MILAN - Tourism and culture
Some useful and interesting information about Milan: history, art, events, nature, gastronomy
Milan is a big city in the North of Italy which is rich in activities and culture, but it is also a chaotic metropolis, where different cultures, needs and the Italian spirit mix up together.
Milan is, after Rome, the most densely populated Italian centre, with 1.302.000 inhabitants and it is the seat of the most important industrial, commercial and bank activities of our peninsula.
The fastest means to reach Milan is certainly the airplane and, in fact, the city has got two airports: Milano Malpensa airport and Milano Linate airport. This one has the characteristics of a real city airport, since it is very close to the urban settlement inside the town.
The railway and motorway routes run parallelly and connect South Milan with the most important Italian chieftowns as Rome, Florence and Naples (through the A1 motorway and the Milan-Naples railway line) and North Milan with Lugano and Switzerland (Milano Laghi motorway).
HISTORY
Mediolanum, Milano?s old name, was founded by the Celts and it seems that the town?s name derives from a peculiar kind of animal, a sow, which was half-covered by wool (medio lanae), and seemed to live in the same place where the centre was built. Milan has always been a very lively city, even if it underwent numerous attacks, as the one in 222 B.C., when it was occupied by the Romans, who transformed it in a flourishing urban centre and then in the seat of the Roman Empire.
In 450 A.D. it was sacked by the Huns led by Attila and then it was further on destroyed by the Gothes in 539 A.D.
The prosperity of the centre started again in the eighth century, but it was in the Middle Ages that, under the government of some archbishops, it gained a certain degree of independence.
In the eleventh century these archbishops slowly lost their power and the noble feudatories transformed Milan into a rich and flourishing commune.
Unfortunately, in 1162, Emperor Frederick I razed the town to the ground and only in 1176, with the Legnano battle and the help from the Lombard League, the town resumed its development. This victory opened the way to a period of prosperity with the reign of the noble Visconti family, in particular in the person of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, first Duke of the town, who kept the power from 1351 to 1402.
In 1450 the Sforza family took the power through the military figure of Francesco Sforza, who governed till 1500, when the town was occupied by the French. The Sforzas continued to represent a puppet government, also towards the other invaders who arrived after the French: the Swiss and the Austrian.
The Sforzas were brought downl in 1535 and Milan was occupied by the Spanish who governed the town until 1713 and then surrendered it to Austria.
In 1796, with Napoleon?s arrival, the Austrian were driven out from the town and Milan became the capital of the Cisalpine Republic. Later Milan was given back to Austria again and only in 1848, with the famous ?cinque giornate? (five days), the Milanese succeded in expelling the Austrian from their town and then drove them out definitively with the French help in 1859.
In 1861 Milan became part of the Italian Kingdom and the town started to develop and become rich again.
Finally, during the Second World War, the town was heavily bombed until the arrival of the allied, on 25th April 1945, when the conflict ended.
After the war the re-establishment started: industries and commerce developed and made Milan become the present-day metropolis.
ART
Milan is today an international reference point for fashion, architecture and design. Milan?s cultural and artistic prestige is basically due to the Scala Theatre (the worldwide famous opera sanctuary), to the Piccolo Theatre (together with the theatre school by Strehler) and to the wonderful Leonardo?s Last Supper, realized in about 1495, which all attract many tourists. We cannot forget the Milanese art museums, the characteristic Brera streets and the private artistic galleries, with their flow of non-stop vernissages and events.
Concerning the ancient painting the most important place to visit is the Brera Gallery, which contains a collection rich in remarkable works as the ?Cristo Morto? (Dead Christ) by Mantegna and a fairly good number of modern works, among which you can find some ones by Boccioni, de Pisis and Sironi.
In the old town centre and around the town you can find many ancient monuments of great value, starting from the Sforzesco Castle, that was commissioned by Galeazzo Visconti II and was built along the medieval walls of the town between 1360 and 1370.
The symbol of Milan has always been the Duomo (the cathedral), with its unique square and its Lombard-Gothic style. Its beautiful pinnacles and steeples are the creative result of the workers? artistic abilities who started building the monument in 1396.
Certainly another icon of the artistic Milan is St Ambrogio?s Basilica, one of the oldest churches in town, since it was started in 379. It contains the mortal remains of the saint who is also the town?s patron saint.
Then we recommend you to see the charming Santa Maria delle Grazie church, a combination of Gothic and Renaissance style that was created by artists as Solari and Bramante, who embellished and modified it several times.
At last, in Milan?s environs, you can visit Chiaravalle Abbey, one of the most important Cistercian monasteries in Italy. It was founded in 1135 by St Bernardo, abbot of Clairvaux and it unites the French style with the Romanesque tradition.
NATURE
The most important green area near the city, situated in the northern suburbs of Milan, is the Parco Nord, with its about 600 hectares, that was planned in the 60s, but then was realized in 1975. The park was born in an area that was initially highly urbanized, provided only by a few green traces which had survived to the cement. Later, thanks to the creation of the park, also these areas have been reclaimed and included in the protected territory.
The first significant interventions to make the park?s areas become green again were made in 1983 and today, 20 years later, more than 150 species of different plants live on the 250 reclaimed hectares. Today it is possible to walk under limes and horse-chestnuts, near hawthorns and hazels and so come into contact with a nature that has so much developed till it has created some real woods, generally poplars and elms ones. Also numerous species of animals live in the park and have increased parallelly with the plants? proliferation.
In fact, the animals who live in the park are: owls, owlets and many small raptors as the sparrowhawk. Then other animals present on the territory are: the robin, the pied woodpecker, the fieldmouse (a small rodent that is typical of the cultivated areas), the hedgehog, the fox and the wild rabbit.
EVENTS
Milan is a metropolis and so it is rich in events dealing with the most different themes, all year round.
As a fashion capital, Milan organizes many parades in which world-famous fashion designers are present. Moreover the Milanese parades attract many well-known personalities of the showbusiness and so they become society and cultural events for the city itself.
Milano is also the capital of design and of the ?made in Italy?objects, that are exported all over the world. Therefore you can find many fairs and exhibitions dealing with this field (the International Furniture Show, for example) and attract many tourists but, above all, many experts. Moreover, we remind you the numerous art exhibitions, that are always interesting and various and are organized both in Palazzo Reale and in the Arengario, in various periods of the year.
GASTRONOMY
The Lombard gastronomy, in the creation of its recipes, is based on the use of bacon fat and butter.
In the preparation of these recipes the tecniques of slow cooking, as the stewing and the boiling, are very used, where pasta had been substituted by polenta (maize porridge)and rice. So we have a kind of cooking characterized by different stocks, sauces (?pucie?) and soups. Typical dishes are the risotto alla Pitocca (rice and chicken), the tortelli di zucca (a kind of big ravioli filled with a pumpkin stuffing) and the traditional polenta concia (polenta served with a sauce).
For the Lombard gastronomy milk and all its by-products are essential, from butter to cheese, which are used in almost every recipe.
For the Lombard gastronomy milk and all its by-products are essential, from butter to cheese, which are used in almost every recipe. That is why you must absolutely taste the delicious Gorgonzola (a typical soft cheese), the bresaola (salted dried meat) and the Cremonese mostarda (candied fruit in a sugar and cinnamon syrup), that is typical of the winter and Christmas period. In particular Milan, in the sweet production, is famous for the typical Christmas Panettone (sweet and soft dough with raisins and candied fruit), but also for chestnuts with whipped cream and for the pannacotta (a dessert made with boiled cream), aromatized with rosolio or maraschino.
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