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City site
Milan is set in the heart of the Po Basin of northern Italy, halfway across the immense plain spreading between the Ticino and Adda rivers. The site is 400 feet (122 metres) above sea level. To the north lies the great sweep of the southern flank of the Alps. Between this semicircle of mountains and the course traced by the Po River to the south, there lies a zone that is arid toward the north but swampy near the Po, where it turns into an expanse of marshy groves and rice fields. It is at the line of demarcation between these two areas, which are strongly differentiated, that Milan has risen, although now only swamplands mark the site of the ancient city. The earliest inhabitants reinforced their defenses by means of the small watercourses of the Sèveso, the Nirone, the Lambro, and the Olona.
Climate
Milan’s climate is continental, with damp, chilly winters and hot, humid summers. Snow falls between December and February, and springtime is generally rainy. In winter temperatures range between 30 and 50 °F (−1 and 10 °C) and in summer between 68 and 86 °F (20 and 30 °C). Characteristic of the Po Basin, fog often shrouds the city in winter. The removal of rice fields from the southern neighbourhoods and the closure of most of the city’s heavy industry have reduced the phenomenon. However, this has been offset somewhat by the growth of an almost uninterrupted built-up area around the city, which reduces local air circulation, and by the gray smog, or traffic-related air pollution, that often covers the city.
City layout
Each period of historical crisis, advance, and consolidation has been reflected in the organic structure of Milan. For a thousand years the core of the city was located just southwest of the present cathedral, the Duomo, and was made up of the rectangular, four-gated city of Mediolanum, with roads thrusting out from each gate to the surrounding countryside, together with an irregular outer defense consolidated in Carolingian times (8th–9th century). This core has influenced the city plan down to modern times.
Dynastic struggle and the imposition of transalpine authority (Spanish, Austrian, and French) brought further changes. The city was razed in 1162, and afterward an enlarged oval was constructed—the course of its outer walls is still traceable in contemporary streets. Spanish domination brought the erection of still another outer ring, the result of 16th-century reconstructions. This too can be traced in contemporary boulevards. Within the city centre, the main focus of activity centred on the Sforzesco Castle (Castello Sforzesco), a product of the 15th-century dynastic struggles, reinforced by the Spanish in the following century; the Piazza Mercanti, the centre of medieval economic activity; and the great Piazza del Duomo, laid out before the cathedral in 1489. Once French emperor Napoleon I made the city the capital of his empire in 1805, he embarked on an ambitious program of city planning, and an elegant boulevard (the Foro Bonaparte) was built around the Sforzesco Castle. Castle, cathedral, and a newer commercial area centred on the Piazza Cordusio—representatives of the motivating forces in Milanese life—continue to dominate the city centre.
Several times since the late 19th century, city planners have laid down the basis of a more organic plan, bypassing the traditional radial street plan, so that new districts might have wide streets and avenues intersecting at right angles. In the mid-20th century, notably during the period of the so-called “economic miracle,” modern urban planning and architectural activity in the city attracted international attention. The Pirelli Building (designed by Gio Ponti, 1955–59), the Velasca Tower (1958), and the Olivetti Building (mid-1950s) in Via Clerici are among the modern structures of architectural note.
The 20th century also saw the development of entire industrial districts outside the city boundaries, particularly to the north and northeast (especially around Sesto San Giovanni) and to the south and southwest. The city now combines with the satellite towns of its periphery to form part of a huge conurbation that stretches across the Po Basin to Turin in the west and Venice in the east. The centres of the newer suburban areas—including Bollate, Novate Milanese, Cusano Milanino, Cinisello Balsamo, and Sesto San Giovanni—as well as the old city of Monza (9 miles [15 km] to the northeast) are linked to the core of the ancient city by major arteries.
People
Milan’s population saw a rapid increase after World War II (1939–45); it grew by roughly 400,000 in the 15 years after 1950. The increase was due mainly to the flood of immigrants from the impoverished Italian south and northeast seeking improved conditions in the factories of the industrial north. This mass internal migration peaked during the years of the “economic miracle” (1958–63), when thousands of immigrants arrived daily at Milan’s Central Station. Luchino Visconti encapsulated the drama of this moment in his classic film Rocco e i suoi fratelli (1960; Rocco and His Brothers).
Population pressure resulted in the growth of self-constructed urban villages in the countryside around Milan, as well as in an expansion of the city itself. This pressure tailed off in the 1970s, and Milan’s population began to fall. Birth rates dropped dramatically, as in the rest of Italy, and the city’s population began to age.
However, from the mid-1970s onward, Milan has been host to a new migration movement, this time from outside Italy. These new immigrants come from a variety of countries—e.g., Morocco, Egypt, Senegal, the Philippines, and Ecuador. The Chinese community, which has existed in the city since the 1930s, experienced notable growth in the 1980s. After 1990, numerous people arrived from eastern Europe, in particular Albania. By the late 1990s there were more than 150,000 non-Italian immigrants in Milan and its province, and one in 10 new schoolchildren in Milan were of non-Italian origin. Immigration from abroad continued to be an important demographic trend in the early 21st century.
Economy
Milan, the most important economic centre of Italy, owes this fact partly to its geographical position, which always has given it advantages as a market centre; indeed, the most important wholesale markets of Italy are still in Milan. The city is located at a nexus of the traffic routes of the Po River valley and lies on the borderline between the advanced agriculture of the fertile irrigated plains of the south and the limited agriculture of the north. Milan also sits on the main route connecting Italy with the rest of Europe. Industrial development in the 20th century further stimulated commercial activity in the city. Of great importance was the export trade; Milanese exports have included artificial fibres, cotton and wool goods, chemical products, and machinery. In the late 20th century, however, manufacturing industries were superseded by the service sector.
Manufacturing
For the first half of the 20th century, the mechanical industries dominated the Milanese economy. The production of automobiles (such as those by Alfa Romeo), motorcycles and motor scooters (notably the Lambretta brand), airplanes, major electric appliances, railroad materials, and other metalworking employed almost half the workforce. Other significant production included the massive rubber plant of the Pirelli company, which remains important today. Chemical production was of considerable importance at one time but has now largely moved away from the city. Textiles (cotton, hemp, silk, and artificial fibres), however, are still manufactured in the region. Since the end of World War II, practically all industrial growth has been concentrated in peripheral areas of the city.
In the city itself manufactures of ready-made clothing and designer fashions predominate. Since the early 1980s Milan’s fashion industry has achieved great commercial prominence, and the city contains the salons of some of the world’s best-known fashion designers—Armani, Versace, Ferré, Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, and Missoni. Glamorous designer showrooms are concentrated around the ultra elegant “Golden Block” of streets in the city centre.