Milan (Milano), situated on the flat plains of the Po Valley, is the capital of Lombardy and Italy’s richest and second largest city. Wealthy and cosmopolitan, the Milanesi enjoy a reputation as successful businesspeople, equally at home overseas and in Italy. Embracing tradition, sophistication and ambition in equal measure, they are just as likely to follow opera at La Scala as their shares on the city’s stock market or their chosen football team, AC or Inter Milan, at the San Siro Stadium.
Better known for being new and fashionable, Milan has never willingly thrown out the old. Three times in its history, the city had to rebuild after conquest by foreign invaders. Founded in the seventh century BC by Celts, the city, then known as Mediolanum (‘mid-plain’), was first sacked by the Goths in the 600s (AD), then by Barbarossa in 1157 and finally by the Allies in World War II, when over a quarter of the city was flattened. Milan had to make an art of recovery, successively reinventing herself under French, Spanish and then Austrian rulers from 1499 until the reunification of Italy in 1870. It is a miracle that so many historic treasures still exist, including Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper, which survived a direct hit in World War II. The Milanesi’s appreciation of tradition includes a singular respect for religion, to the extent that they even pay a special tax towards the Cathedral maintenance. It is therefore fitting that the city’s enduring symbol is the gilded statue of the Virgin, on top of the Cathedral (Il Duomo).
http://www.cityguide.travel-guides.c...tyOverview.asp
http://www.ryanair.ie/dest/bergamo.html
http://www.paliotours.com/webpage/milan_guide.htm
http://www.edenviaggi.com/milan_leisure.asp
http://www.flycheapol.com/europe/defaultitaly-milan.asp
www.languagesabroad.com/pdfs/milan.pdf
Origin/Meaning:
Founded by the celtic people Insubri around the 15th century b.C. in the middle of the Valle Padana (from which the Latin name Mediolanum derives), Milan is one of the main towns in northern Italy.
http://www.ngw.nl/int/ita/m/milano.htm
Origins and Early History
Clear references to the history of the Celts are first found in the late Bronze age (the 13th century BC) with the beginning of the Canegrate culture. The name comes from the archaeological excavation at "Canegrate" near Legnano north of Milan, where important finds were made. The Canegrate culture was founded by Celts who came from the Northwest alpine region and settled in the area between the Lake of Maggiore and the Lake of Como. They brought a language with them from which "Old-Celtic" continuously developed. They lived in direct proximity to the Golasecca- Celts of the Ticino (their name stems from the important archaeological finds in "Golasecca" at the place where the Ticino river flows out of the Lake of Maggiore) and the Helvetians in the north whose settlements reached far towards southern Germany.
http://www.maasberg-therme.de/eKelten.html




Rispondi Citando