Economist.com Cities Guide: Milan Briefing - June 2005

News this month

Full steam ahead

Milan's Stazione Centrale, Italy's second-largest train station and a monument to Fascist-era architecture, is to get a revamp. The three-year, €104.4m ($127m) overhaul will see the station's interior reconfigured to improve navigation, and its mosaics and sculptures restored to their original grandeur.

Once work begins at the end of June, the 320,000 passengers who use the station daily may find travelling to-and-from Milan more challenging. The main ticket office and escalators will be moved, while taxis will wait at Piazza IV Novembre, a short walk away. Italia Nostra, a conservation group which petitioned unsuccessfully against the refurbishment, complains that commercial space in the station will double. Other critics say that, judging from the images of the planned project, Stazione Centrale may end up looking as bland as Rome's Stazione Termini.

Good connections

Half of all Milanese who found jobs last year did so thanks to friends and family, according a study released on May 18th by the regional labour observatory. In a country where personal connections are vital, the number of Milanese finding employment through contacts has risen by nearly 5% since 2000. But the study found that most of the new jobs were temporary. Full-time jobs dipped by three percentage points to 27.9% of total jobs over the last year. Flexible contracts and temporary jobs had increased.

What do Milanese want from employment? Researchers found that interesting work was the prime consideration, followed closely by job stability. Salary and career potential were near the bottom of the list.

Playing for time

A new board game is the latest product to emerge from Milan's San Vittore prison. Designed by inmates, “Criminal Mouse” (as the game is known in English), challenges players to navigate their way out of jail. A roll of the dice can mean a stay in a rat-infested cell, a course of rehabilitation classes, visits from loved ones, time off for good behaviour and, possibly, freedom.

San Vittore prison, built in 1879, has become something of a creative hothouse, with the publication of an inmates' recipe book, a collection of love poems and even a television sitcom (with plots created by prisoners). Emilia Patruno, a prison volunteer, said the new board game was intended to give outsiders a better understanding of life behind bars. Meanwhile, prison officials are still scratching their heads over the escape of an alleged drug dealer on April 12th. Klodian Ndoi, who was awaiting trial, slipped from his cell using a rope made of knotted sheets and has so far eluded the authorities.

Permission to log on

Foreigners requiring a residency permit may soon be able to apply for it online. The announcement from Milan's police chief came after Corriere della Sera, a newspaper, published a photograph of 600 people queuing outside the Via Cagni police station to apply for a permesso di soggiorno. A new website will let foreigners make appointments online and check the status of their applications. Residents of 40 towns in the province of Milan will also be able to use the website.

The bad news is that the website won't shorten the wait for a permit—which can take up to eight months. As the duration of residents' permits was shortened in 2003, a foreigner who finally receives a permit may find it expires just four months later.

Designer droppings

Some Milanese may have thought it was a comment on their city's notoriously gloomy weather.
But Chadwick Shao, an American graphic designer, seemed struck by something else during his visit in March to Milan's furniture fair. Hordes of pigeons in Piazza Duomo and the mess they splatter over city landmarks led Mr Shao to commemorate his trip by creating a T-shirt emblazoned provocatively with the words “Shitty Milan”, dedicated to “all the rats of the skies, from Milan to New York City”. The limited-edition shirt, sold online in sky blue and mint green, feature stylised birds and a few discreet droppings in the lower corner.

The shirt may strike a nerve with Milan's local officials, who have tried unsuccessfully to curb the city's bird population with a poster campaign discouraging people from feeding pigeons. At last count, Milan boasted a staggering 2,083 birds per square kilometre.

Catch if you can

June 2005

La Spiaggia All'Arco Della Pace

Until September 15th 2005

Paris has its “Paris Plage” along the Seine; now Milan boasts its own summertime oasis. Granted, the huge piazza behind Castello Sforzesco may not have a river flowing nearby. But for the second year running, the city's authorities have valiantly attempted to transform the square beneath the city's Napoleonic “peace arch” into something resembling a beach, with imported sand, deck chairs and cooling sprinklers. The results have gone down well: some 5,000 Milanese turned up on the first weekend the beach opened, at the end of May.

Bar staff whisk up drinks and aperitifs, and aerobics classes cater for those keen to tone up for summer. New attractions this year include creche facilities and a Wi-Fi spot for those sneaking out of their offices at lunchtime.

Piazza Sempione, Milan. Open: Mon-Sun, 10am-2am.

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