Visit Milan

Discover a wonderful city. Book an hotel in Milan!

A rich and prosperous city, Milan’s affluence has come through the hard work and pragmatism of its people. There are two million of them, and they are the reason why Milan is the most dynamic city in all of Italy. . Milan is Italy's gateway to Europe and its most sophisticated and high-tech metropolis. It does not have much of the turbulent history that sometimes paralyzed modern developments in Rome and Florence, or the watery deterioration that seems to pervade Venice.

The hard nosed work ethic of the Milanese can be traced to the Teutonic origins of the Lombards of northwestern Germany. They occupied Milan and intermarried with its population after the collapse of the Roman Empire. In the 14th century, the Viscontis, through their intelligence, riches, and marriage alliances with the royalty of England and France, made Milan Italy's strongest city. Milan, in those early days, started a continuing campaign of drainage and irrigation of the Po Valley, and this helped to make it one of the world's most fertile regions. These facts have made the rest of Italy compare the painstaking Milanese to the nearby practical Swiss.

Its recent history began with the Hapsburgs in the Seventeenth century. This inheritance left it with scores of neoclassical buildings in its inner core and a long-lasting admiration for music and work. In 1848, it was at the heart of the northern Italian revolt against its Austro-Hungarian rulers and, with Piedmont, was at the center of the 19th-century nationalistic fervor that swept through Italy and ended in the country's unification. During this same period, Milan mainly through the novelist Manzoni, was encouraging the development of a Pan-Italian dialect.

Contemporary Milan is Italy’s most influential city, a commercial powerhouse that is home to many major industries and over four hundred banks. It is the center of publishing, silk production, TV and advertising, and fashion design. Besides this it also lies close to Italy's largest collection of automobile-assembly plants, rubber and textile factories, and chemical plants. Milan also boasts La Scala, one of Europe's most prestigious opera houses, and a major commercial university which was the alma mater of most of Italy's corporate presidents. In addition, it's the site of several world-renowned annual trade fairs.

In an unabashed capitalistic style, Milan has acquired more art than it has created. To succeed in Milan, in either business or the arts, is to have made it to the top of the particular line you are in. If you visit Italy to find sunny piazzas and lazy bright afternoons, you will have to go elsewhere; you won't find them amid the fogs and rains of Milan. You will, however, have visited the heart of modern Italy.

Book an hotel in Milan!

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