Milan is a fitting choice In 2016 Milan Ers Congress was the most in the city for the largest respiratory visited tourist of Leonardo meeting in the world as destination in da Vinci Italy it has for a long time been an important scientific centre in Europe. 02 04 08 09 A Magazine about the best of Italy — Number 4 / 2017 12 Milano and the Ers Congress Fondazione Prada Hangar Bicocca In December 2016, the Prada Foundation, whose beautiful Where once there was the Pirelli pneumatic factory offices were designed by the “archi-star” Rem Koolhaas now there is one of the most fascinating exhibition and opened in Milan in May 2015, opened a new exhibition areas of Milan. For more than ten years the Pirelli center in Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, in the heart of HangarBicocca has been presenting several free top- Milan: its name is “Osservatorio” and is focused mainly level temporary exhibitions thanks to its large spaces on photography. Today, the Prada Foundation in Milan is that can host even monumental works. An example of undoubtedly one of the main cultural centers, attracting them is Anselm Kiefer’s permanent installation “The contemporary art lovers from around the world. Seven Heavenly Palaces”. 2 Milan, the industrious “capital” including Pirelli – have been regenerated through an international architecture competition. Today, the Biccoca district hosts a university, the second opera house in the city, several research centers, leafy residential areas, as well as the Pirelli HangarBicocca Porta Nuova, n 2016, Milan was the exhibition center. Milan’s hustle and bustle is still area Garibaldi most visited tourist there, but it is now the sign of a vibrant city. Today, its Idestination in Italy, people hurry not only to produce but also to go and La Darsena with 7,6 million visitors visit exhibitions, museums, cultural centers, libraries, and a turnover of 4,1 works of art, shows, concerts, festivals. They hang out billion Euros. in new neighborhoods, new restaurants. In the Navigli neighborhood, the river flows again. There are new In the collective gardens and parks. The Scala opera house imagination of Italian remains open all year round. In September, people, it sounds a little the MITO (Milan-Turin International Music bit strange, since Milan Festival) fills the whole city with music (even is the hard-working, during the Ers Congress). During the days productive city full of of the “Salone del Mobile” furniture fair as hustle and bustle and well as the Fashion Week, you can breathe a factories. The factories, cosmopolitan atmosphere and you have the however, are not there impression of being in New York. “Milanesi” anymore, and its hustle people are a wonderful mix of different and bustle has taken a cities, lifestyles, outfits, all of which are different direction. interesting, perfectly combined. Milan has managed to combine Italian elegance and Triennale This change has been developing for a few decades, but beauty with innovation. it has been fully realized with the 2015 World EXPO in Hangar Bicocca Milan. The city has become more attractive. Tourists – above all from foreign countries – have understood that La Scala staying a few days in Milan means much more than a brief stop to get their fill of Prada/Armani/Gucci; it is a Milano Expo journey to discover a great European city that had been an emperor’s headquarters, a state capital (it was a Fondazione dukedom) and even the capital of the Kingdom of Italy Feltrinelli (declared by Napoleon). Districts like Bicocca – a former industrial area that once was the headquarters of big companies, Even Milan has its own green areas. cultivations (an ancient method of The Parco Lambro, the biggest park of the farming invented by Cistercian monks). city, is a well-liked destination for the In these farmlands five “cascine” green Milanese. It is located in the eastern side (farmhouses) can be found, one of which lungs of Milan, and was created in the 1940s has maintained its original peculiarities 01 along the lines of the typical landscape and functions. At Cascina San Gregorio of the Lombard countryside. Inside, Vecchio, around a large square there are forage fields that keep up with courtyard, there are human settlements, the tradition of the “water-meadow” stables, and barns. Art: The Last Supper 3 by Leonardo da Vinci n the former Renaissance refectory of the Leonardo did not like the fresco technique, as it monastery adjoining Santa Maria delle Grazie implies the need to spread colours rapidly before the ISanctuary you can admire (if you book early) plaster dries so that this can entrap them. Such rapid Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece The Last Supper, execution was incompatible with his modus operandi, which was included in the list of Unesco World which involved second thoughts, additions and small Heritage Sites in 1980. changes. For The Last Supper he decided to paint on the wall as he painted on canvas: after spreading a It is one of the most important preserved masterpieces layer of almost rough plaster, mostly in the middle, of Italy, created from 1495 to 1498 in a wall of the and after spreading the basic lines of the composition dining hall where monks gathered to eat their daily with a sort of sinopia, he worked on the painting with meals. This mural painting aimed at reminding a mixture of calcium and magnesium carbonate bound them that the religious community’s life had to be by a protein ligand. Before spreading the colours, the an extension of Christ’s and his apostles’ one. It was artist interposed a thin layer of white lead to set off commissioned by Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, with the luminous effects. Afterwards he spread colours the intention of embellishing the monastery, and the on the dried surface. They were composed by an oily Detail of city itself, where he had given orders to be buried. tempera, which was probably created by emulsifying Christ before some fluidizing oils to the egg. This technique enabled and after The painter’s expert stroke deceives the eye of those him to add a peculiar richness to the painting, restoration who are looking at the painting, giving the impression excellent see-through and light effects, and extreme that the room is deep and large. The technique used care for details. But the dampness of the room, close by the author (tempera on plaster) enabled him to to the kitchen of the monastery, helped to deteriorate repaint the images afterwards until they were perfect. the painting rapidly. Unfortunately, this technique condemned the work of art to deterioration. In order to preserve and restore it over the centuries, much restoration work was needed. The last one went on for twenty years. It was not until 1999 that the painting was restored to its former glory. The fully fenced Parco Sempione is a and its museums, Arena Gianni Brera, The Romantic English garden, which is very the Arch of Peace and the Triennale rich in arboreal and shrubby plants. of Milan, as well as the Municipal green There are also a lot of recreational and Aquarium, designed in Art-Nouveau lungs entertainment areas for grown-ups and style, which hosted the Universal 02 children. On its edges some important Exhibition in 1906, and the Branca historic buildings and Milanese Tower (or Park Tower, formerly Littoria institutions rise, such as the Sforza Castle Tower), designed by Giò Ponti in 1932. 4 The modernisation of Milan: glimpses of contemporary architecture ess is more” was the main rule of 20th- The Vertical Forest comfort and a lifestyle that century Milanese architecture. Iron, Of all the buildings rising combines the history of the “Lglass, steel and concrete. No dominant near Gae Aulenti square, place with a contemporary façades nor motifs. the Vertical Forest is the vision. The two residential most famous one. It is towers are respectively 111 If you were in Milan some years ago, you can a residential structure and 76 metres high and remember that between Corso Como and the Isola that has recently won the host 900 trees (each of District, above Garibaldi railway station, there was International Highrise them is 3, 6 or 9 metres a large neglected open space where the circuses Award, the prize for the high), as well as more sometimes made camp. Today, the area has been most innovative skyscraper than 2,000 plants (a great replaced by piazza Gae Aulenti, and its skyscrapers of the world: two tall variety of bushes and make Milan look like it has always wanted to be: a towers, one white and flowering plants), placed vertical city. the other black, designed on the façades of both by Stefano Boeri, whose buildings in relation to Opened on the 8th of December 2012, piazza Gae balconies are wholly their exposure to sunlight. Aulenti has become the symbol of the architectural covered with trees, The buildings, covered with and cultural revival of Milan. Designed by César Pelli, flowers and bushes. The terraced gardens, have its circular shape evokes the ancient Roman squares. Vertical Forest tries to been designed to meet the It is 6 metres above street level and 100 metres across. meet the modern man’s sustainability standards In the middle, there is a fountain with no more than a inner need of living in and to provide for the few centimetres depth, constantly filled and emptied, a natural ecosystem highest standards of living Gae Aulenti where it is possible to bathe in summer; on one side, without renouncing the to the residents. Square a building with some stairwells that lead to the floor below where a supermarket is located.