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Milan / Italy

Milan ; Italian: Milano [miˈlaːno] ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city in Italy after Rome. Milan served as the capital of the Western Roman Empire, the Duchy of Milan and the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million while its metropolitan city has 3.26 million inhabitants. Its continuously built-up urban area, that stretches well beyond the boundaries of the administrative metropolitan city, is the fourth largest in the EU with 5.27 million inhabitants. The population within the wider Milan metropolitan area, also known as Greater Milan, is estimated at 8.2 million, making it by far the largest metropolitan area in Italy and the 3rd largest in the EU.Milan is considered a leading alpha global city, with strengths in the fields of art, commerce, design, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, services, research and tourism. Its business district hosts Italy's stock exchange , and the headquarters of national and international banks and companies. In terms of GDP, it has the second-largest economy among EU cities after Paris, and is the wealthiest among EU non-capital cities. Milan is considered part of the Blue Banana and one of the "Four Motors for Europe". The city has been recognized as one of the world's four fashion capitals thanks to several international events and fairs, including Milan Fashion Week and the Milan Furniture Fair, which are currently among the world's biggest in terms of revenue, visitors and growth. It hosted the Universal Exposition in 1906 and 2015. The city hosts numerous cultural institutions, academies and universities, with 11% of the national total of enrolled students. Milan is the destination of 8 million overseas visitors every year, attracted by its museums and art galleries that include some of the most important collections in the world, including major works by Leonardo da Vinci. The city is served by many luxury hotels and is the fifth-most starred in the world by Michelin Guide. The city is home to two of Europe's most successful football teams, A.C. Milan and F.C. Internazionale, and one of Europe's main basketball teams, Olimpia Milano. Milan will host the 2026 Winter Olympics together with Cortina d'Ampezzo.

Pinacoteca di Brera

Milan / Italy

The Pinacoteca di Brera is the main public gallery for paintings in Milan, Italy. It contains one of the foremost collections of Italian paintings, an outgrowth of the cultural program of the Brera Academy, which shares the site in the Palazzo Brera.

Museo Poldi Pezzoli

Milan / Italy

The Museo Poldi Pezzoli is an art museum in Milan, Italy. It is located near the Teatro alla Scala, on Via Manzoni 12. The museum was originated in the 19th century as a private collection of Gian Giacomo Poldi Pezzoli and his mother, Rosa Trivulzio, of the family of the condottiero Gian Giacomo Trivulzio. Many of the rooms in the palace were redecorated starting in 1846, a commissions entrusted to Luigi Scrosati and Giuseppe Bertini. Individual rooms were often decorated and furnished to match the paintings hung on the walls. The architect Simone Cantoni rebuilt the palazzo in its present Neoclassical style with an English-style interior garden. In 1850–1853, Poldi Pezzoli commissioned the architect Giuseppe Balzaretto to refurbish his apartment.Pezzoli in his testament left the house and contents to the Brera Academy. Giuseppe Bertini, director of the Academy, opened the museum on 25 April 1881. During World War II, the palazzo suffered severe damage, but the artworks had been placed in safe storage. The museum was reopened in 1951 after reconstruction. The museum is notable for its broad collection of Northern Italian and Netherlandish/Flemish artists. The exhibition includes weaponry, glassworks, ceramics, jewelry, and furnishings.

Biblioteca Ambrosiana

Milan / Italy

The Biblioteca Ambrosiana is a historic library in Milan, Italy, also housing the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, the Ambrosian art gallery. Named after Ambrose, the patron saint of Milan, it was founded in 1609 by Cardinal Federico Borromeo, whose agents scoured Western Europe and even Greece and Syria for books and manuscripts. Some major acquisitions of complete libraries were the manuscripts of the Benedictine monastery of Bobbio and the library of the Paduan Vincenzo Pinelli, whose more than 800 manuscripts filled 70 cases when they were sent to Milan and included the famous Iliad, the Ilias Picta.

Sforza Castle

Milan / Italy

Sforza Castle is in Milan, northern Italy. It was built in the 15th century by Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan, on the remnants of a 14th-century fortification. Later renovated and enlarged, in the 16th and 17th centuries it was one of the largest citadels in Europe. Extensively rebuilt by Luca Beltrami in 1891–1905, it now houses several of the city's museums and art collections.

Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Milan

Milan / Italy

The Galleria d'Arte Moderna is a modern art museum in Milan, in Lombardy in northern Italy. It is housed in the Villa Reale, at Via Palestro 16, opposite the Giardini Pubblici. The collection consists largely of Italian and European works from the 18th to the 20th centuries.The museum has works by Francesco Filippini, Giuseppe Ferrari, Giovanni Fattori, Silvestro Lega, Giovanni Boldini, Vincent van Gogh, Édouard Manet, Paul Gauguin, Paul Cézanne, Pablo Picasso, Giacomo Balla, Umberto Boccioni, Francesco Hayez, Giovanni Segantini, Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo and Antonio Canova, among others. It has received donations from Milanese families including Treves, Ponti, Grassi and Vismara. After the Second World War the twentieth-century works in the collection were moved to the Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea, built in 1955 on the site of the former stables of the palace, which had been destroyed by wartime bombing.In 2011 some works were moved to the Museo del Novecento; these included Bambina che corre sul balcone by Giacomo Balla , Uomo che dorme by Renato Guttuso and The Fourth Estate by Pellizza da Volpedo . In recent years the Modern Art Gallery has started a parallel program of temporary exhibitions, including a solo presentation of Tino Sehgal and a selection of drawings from the UBS Art Collection curated by Francesco Bonami.

Royal Palace of Milan

Milan / Italy

The Royal Palace of Milan was the seat of government in the Italian city of Milan for many centuries. Today, it serves as a cultural center and it is home to international art exhibitions. It spans through an area of 7,000 square meters and it regularly hosts modern and contemporary art works and famous collections in cooperation with notable museums and cultural institutions from across the world. More than 1,500 masterpieces are on display annually. It was originally designed to include two courtyards but these were later dismantled to make room for the Duomo. The Palazzo is located to the right of the Duomo's facade, opposite to Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. The facade of the Palazzo creates a recess in Piazza del Duomo which functions as a courtyard, known as the Piazzetta Reale . The famous Hall of Caryatids can be found on the main floor of the building, heavily damaged by World War II's air raids. After the war the Palazzo remained abandoned for over two years and its condition further deteriorated. Many of the Palazzo's neoclassical interiors were lost in this period.

Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan

Milan / Italy

Santa Maria delle Grazie is a church and Dominican convent in Milan, northern Italy, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The church contains the mural of The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci, which is in the refectory of the convent.

Milan Cathedral

Milan / Italy

Milan Cathedral is the cathedral church of Milan, Lombardy, Italy. Dedicated to the Nativity of St Mary , it is the seat of the Archbishop of Milan, currently Archbishop Mario Delpini. The cathedral took nearly six centuries to complete: construction began in 1386, and the final details were completed in 1965. It is the largest church in Italy—the larger St. Peter's Basilica is in the State of Vatican City, a sovereign nation—and the second largest in Europe and the fourth largest in the world.

Applied Arts Collection

Milan / Italy

The Applied Arts Collection of Milan is located in the Sforza Castle museum complex under the management of the municipality of Milan, Italy. The museum is divided into several sections with particular emphasis on jewelry, ivories, pottery and art glass. The ceramic collection includes medieval, Renaissance and Baroque pottery, a maiolica group with pieces from 17th-century Lodi and Milan, and a collection of European chinaware and earthenware. The collection of artistic glass includes the Cup Gonzagna, made of crystal clear glass and decorated with a pattern of small golden flowers and the Gonzaga coat of arm with a quadripartite black eagle on a white background. In the Sala Della Balla is the Arazzi Trivulzio, a series of twelve tapestries representing the different months of the years. Their design is based on drawings by Italian painter Bramantino.