As Rome falls behind, Milan ups the ante
While rays of sun warm the elegant marble monuments on Rome’s skyline, Milan lies under grey crowds heavy with pollution.
But beyond the blue skies, the eternal city is battling crises on several fronts, while its northern rival has become the nerve centre of Italy, attracting not only record numbers of tourists but entrepreneurs and foreign capital.
“Milan is experiencing a moment of extraordinary transformation, becoming one of the most interesting hubs internationally,” says Giuliano Noci, a strategy professor at the Polytechnic School in Milan.
Visitors descend for fashion week four times a year; a design fair that takes over large parts of the city; a week-long food fair founded this year; and a book fair Milan is boldly stealing from its sister northern metropolis, Turin.
With such an array of cultural offerings, the smog lingers but the city has shrugged off the stereotype of being a sad industrial hub.
“Milan was able to capitalise on the World Expo” of 2015, which attracted 21.5 million people, including 6.5 million foreigners, Noci said.
And despite welcoming a record number of visitors in 2015, the home of the famous Gothic cathedral and La Scala opera house topped it last year, with tourists up by over two percent.
“One of the highlights of Milan is that it is a cosmopolitan city, it attracts many quality foreigners, it’s a centre of exchange. The universities are very international,” says Carlo Alberto Carnevale Maffe, a professor at the Bocconi University.
Noci describes it as “a gateway to business in Italy, linked to one of the most important economic development zones in Europe”.
While the national jobless rate is close to 12 per cent, it is only eight per cent in Milan, while in Rome it nears 11 per cent.
The country’s finance capital alone generates 10 per cent of the country’s GDP (gross domestic product).