Economist.com Cities Guide: Milan Briefing - September 2005

News this month

Terror test

Milan will host Italy’s first large-scale simulation of a terrorist attack, as the country tightens its defences following the bombings in London in July. An exercise on September 23rd will test the readiness of the city's emergency response teams. Two fake bombs will go off: one at Cadorna station, on Milan's railway system, and the second on the city’s subway system nearby.

About 1,000 people—including police, firemen, specialist anti-terrorism teams, ambulance workers and “commuters”—will participate in the “attack”, in which 30 lose their lives and 300 are injured. The exercise is being co-ordinated by Bruno Ferrante, the prefect of Milan. Italy is considered to be more at risk from attack than most countries, since it has more than 3,000 troops in Iraq, and peace-keeping forces in Afghanistan.

Gay donors

Milan’s Policlinico hospital hit the headlines after doctors refused blood from a gay donor, 39-year-old Paolo Pedote. Francesco Storace, the Italian health minister, said the decision was “unacceptable” and announced a government inquiry. Arcigay, Italy’s gay rights association, claimed that there had been similar cases in other Italian hospitals.

Mr Pedote was told that it was the hospital’s internal policy not to accept blood from gay male donors. But in 2001 Italy revoked a law dating from 1991 that prevented those who had “man-to-man sexual relations” from donating blood, and instead introduced the principle that it was modes of behaviour, rather than categories of individuals, that must be evaluated for risk.

Science funds

Roberto Maroni, Italy's welfare minister, said on September 5th that Milan would be allocated about €570m ($700m) in government funds for health care, scientific research and teaching, as part of a project to turn the city into Europe’s capital of science. The money will go to five institutes—the Carlo Besta National Institute of Neurology, the European Institute of Oncology, the National Institute for Cancer Research and Treatment, the Bicocca University and the Rozzano Hospital University—and will be used to restructure existing facilities and to construct new ones. Additional government funds should arrive by January 2006.

Local researchers welcomed the news, though some stressed the importance of investing in research as well as in buildings. They also argued that careers in science needed to pay better, to discourage talented Italian researchers from seeking careers abroad.

Dotty about Toti

Thousands turned out in mid-August to watch S-506 Enrico Toti, a submarine, slowly cross Milan to its final resting place in the Leonardo da Vinci Museum of Science and Technology. The 46-metre, 340-tonne submarine had made a six-day voyage over land from Cremona on the Po River, in a move that took four years of planning. Street lights, lamp-posts and even pavements had to be temporarily removed to make room for the submarine, which will be open to the public from December 7th.

The Toti, the first submarine produced in Italy after the second world war, was launched in 1967 and ended service in 1999. Its new home houses a number of futuristic designs by Leonardo da Vinci, including, suitably enough, one for a submarine.

No place like home?

Almost seven out of ten locals are not happy to call Milan home, according to a poll published on September 4th by the Istituto Riza di Medicina Psicosomatica. The main reason for the discontent, according to the survey of more than 1,000 Milanese aged between 25 and 60, is the dreariness of the city, followed by the stressful pace of life, the high cost of living and the local obsession with work. Milan’s central train station is the local spot that spurs sadness in the highest numbers, followed by the central Piazza del Duomo and the subway system.

Catch if you can

September 2005

Milan International Film Festival

September 16th-25th 2005

Milan’s international film festival started quietly in 1996, when just 500 people turned up to watch a handful of new films. Since then, it has grown steadily: last year, the festival's two competitions received nearly 2,000 entries last year, while the event itself attracted some 70,000 film-lovers.

It may not quite be Italy's answer to America's Sundance Festival, as its organisers like to boast, but there is plenty here to divert the seasoned cinema-goer. Among this year's highlights, look out for an American documentary about Alberto Fujimori, Peru's disgraced former president, and a film from Serbia and Montenegro about a romance in the last days of Yugoslavia.

Teatro Strehler, Teatro Studio, Spazio Oberdan and Castello Sforzesco. Tel: +39 (02) 713-613. See the festival's official website for dates and times.

More from the Milan cultural calendar