Milan: the city of la Madonnina

I went daily to the cathedral of Milan, that singular mountain which was torn out of the rocks of Carrara. I saw the church for the first time in the clear moonlight; dazzlingly white stood the upper part of it in the infinitely blue ether. Round about, wherever I looked, from every corner, upon every little tower with which the building was, as it were, overlaid, projected marble figures. Its interior dazzled me more than St. Peter’s Church; the strange gloom, the light which streamed through the painted windows – the wonderful mystical world which revealed itself here – yes, it was a church of God! – Hans Christian Andersen 

Milan is the city of la Madonnina, a symbol for the city: a statue of the Virgin Mary atop the Duomo, erected there in 1762, designed and built by Giuseppe Perego. The statue gives its name to the derby between Inter Milan and AC Milan.

Retire me to my Milan, where every third thought shall be my grave. - Prospero

Milan's ecological challenges mainly center on air pollution because infrastructure neglect has led to an almost absurd predominance of the car (a 2023 study showed it had the worst air pollution in Europe). But, since 2018, that's been changing slowly. Especially notable is a project called Piazze Aperte (in English this is translated as Play Streets), which is bringing back public squares, benefiting pedestrians and improving air quality and best of all, getting car owners to think differently. Certain streets - especially those around schools - are temporarily closed to cars during certain hours of the day, becoming a safe place for families to bike, draw with chalk, kick a ball, hang out after school, and so on. The first project was Piazza Dergano shown below in a Before and After: