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Beautiful Milano
"Cooling off between jobs"
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.
"Milan 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.
"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.
hotel lobby
Bar Duomo in front of piazza del Duomo
galleria Vittorio Emanuele
past exhibitions
