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Milan - (Milano)
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It's as fast as Rome, but the similarities stop there. Milan is charging ahead
to the 21st Centry, where Rome and other Italian cities seem to concentrate on
echoing the glorious past. Some of this is out of sad necessity, since Milan's
industry made it a target of Allied bombs in World War II, and some of its old
buildings were destroyed or damaged. It revels in prosperity, with BMWs, Mercedes
and Jaguars prowling its streets along with streetcars and naturally, tour buses.
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Not that Milan totally has forsaken its past. It's fabulous Gothic cathedral,
with so many spires it seems to be a porcupine, sits grandly over a
pigeon-and-tourist filled square. To one side of the square is an entrance
to a glass-covered shopping mall called the Galleria, a study in capitalist
excess. And Milan reveres its other famous building, La Scala opera house,
with a museum that delights lovers of classical music and opera performance.
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And of course, one of the world's most famous art treasures resides here, The
Last Supper by da Vinci, rapidly fading, another bit of Italian glory that may
someday be resigned to the status of historical legend.
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Milan, with its prosperity and prominence in national industries like fashion,
seems to challenge Rome: You may have been King of the Past, but I am King of
Italy's future.
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