“GIAN GALEAZZO VISCONTI”
(“milan” (English: /mɪˈlæn/ or US: /mɪˈlɑːn/; Italian: Milano [miˈlaːno] (
listen); Lombard: Milan [miˈlãː] (Milanese variant)) is the capital of Lombardy and the second most populous city in Italy after Rome, with the city proper having a population of 1,351,562 while its province-level municipality has a population of 3,219,000)
(its continuously built-up urban area (that stretches beyond the boundaries of the Metropolitan City of Milan) has a population estimated to be about 5,270,000 over 1,891 square kilometres (730 square miles), ranking 4th in the ‘European Union’)
(the wider ‘Milan’ metropolitan area, known as ‘Greater Milan’, is a polycentric metropolitan region that extends over central Lombardy and eastern Piedmont and which counts an estimated total population of 7.5 million)
(‘milan’ is considered a leading “Alpha Global City”, with strengths in the arts, commerce, design, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, services, research, and tourism)
(its business district hosts Italy’s “Stock Exchange” and the headquarters of the largest national and international banks and companies)
(in terms of GDP, it has the third largest economy among european cities)
(‘milan’ is considered part of the ‘Blue Banana’ and one of the “Four Motors for Europe”)
(the city has long been named a fashion capital of the world and a world’s design capital, 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 enrolled students)
(‘milan’ is the destination of 8 million overseas visitors every year, attracted by its museums and art galleries that boast some of the most important collections in the world, including major works by ‘Leonardo da Vinci’)
(the city is served by a large number of luxury hotels and is the fifth ‘most starred’ in the world by ‘Michelin Guide’)
(the city is home to 2 of Europe’s most successful football teams, ‘A.C. Milan’ and ‘F.C. Internazionale’, and one of Italy’s main basketball teams, ‘Olimpia Milano’)
(the english name milan derives from the italian form Milano which stems from the latin mediolanum, the ancient city founded by the celtic tribe of the insubres, that was in possession of the city until the ‘roman conquest’ in the 2nd century BC)
(the ‘mediolanum’ name is borne by a number of Gallo-Roman sites in France, such as Mediolanum Santonum (Saintes) and Mediolanum Aulercorum (Évreux) and appears to contain the Celtic element -lan, signifying an enclosure or demarcated territory (source of the Welsh word ‘llan’, meaning a sanctuary or ‘church’))
(hence, mediolanum could signify the central town or sanctuary of a particular ‘celtic’ tribe)
(the origin of the name and of a boar as a symbol of the city are fancifully accounted for in Andrea Alciato’s Emblemata (1584), beneath a woodcut of the first raising of the city walls, where a boar is seen lifted from the excavation, and the etymology of Mediolanum given as “half-wool”, explained in Latin and in ‘french’)
(the foundation of ‘milan’ is credited to 2 celtic peoples, the ‘Bituriges’ and the ‘Aedui’, having as their emblems a ram and a boar; therefore “The city’s symbol is a wool-bearing boar, an animal of double form, here with sharp bristles, there with sleek wool”)
(‘alciato’ credits ‘ambrose’ for his account)
(the german name for the city is mailand, while in the local ‘Western Lombard’ dialect, the city’s name is ‘millá’)