About Milan

Milan (Milano), situated on the flat plains of the Po Valley, is the capital of Lombardy and Italy’s richest and second largest city. Wealthy and cosmopolitan, the Milanesi enjoy a reputation as successful businesspeople, equally at home overseas and in Italy.

Embracing tradition, sophistication and ambition in equal measure, they are just as likely to follow opera at La Scala as their shares on the city’s stock market or their chosen football team, AC or Inter Milan, at the San Siro Stadium. Better known for being new and fashionable, Milan has never willingly thrown out the old. Three times in its history, the city had to rebuild after conquest by foreign invaders.

Founded in the seventh century BC by Celts, the city, then known as Mediolanum (‘mid-plain’), was first sacked by the Goths in the 600s (AD), then by Barbarossa in 1157 and finally by the Allies in World War II, when over a quarter of the city was flattened.