Economist.com Cities Guide: Milan Briefing - August 2006

News this month

A stinging wrist-slap

In the latest twist in Italy's match-fixing scandal, on July 25th an appeals panel lightened the punishment meted out to the four leading football clubs involved. For AC Milan, this means the club will begin next season's Serie A campaign with an eight-point deficit, rather than the 15-point deficit ordained by a Rome tribunal on July 14th. The team, which is owned by Silvio Berlusconi, the former prime minister, will also be allowed to play in the Champions League, Europe's most prestigious and lucrative club competition.

The other three teams involved in the trial—Juventus, Fiorentina and Lazio—also benefited from their appeals. Juventus, the team at the heart of the scandal, will still start next season in the second division, Serie B, but its points reduction has been cut from 30 to 17. The Turin-based club, which has already sold some of its star players, plans to contest this latest ruling, possibly in the civil courts. Fiorentina and Lazio, condemned to Serie B by the initial ruling, have avoided demotion altogether, but will start next season with 19- and 11-point deficits respectively.

Pollution solution

Letizia Moratti, the new, centre-right mayor of Milan, took careful note of London’s congestion-charging scheme during a trip to Britain in late June, as she is preparing to introduce a similar toll in Milan in January 2007. Ms Moratti, who was elected in May, campaigned on plans for what she calls a “pollution charge”. Her predecessor, Gabriele Albertini, a member of the Forza Italia party, was prevented from introducing such a fee by opponents in his own administration, who argued that the charge could hurt the economy by discouraging consumers from driving in the city. But by the end of his term the charge was raised again as a way to combat the city's pollution problems.

The cost for cars entering the city is expected to be around €2 ($2.50). Ms Moratti said the charge, from which city residents will be exempt, would be accompanied by measures to strengthen Milan's much-maligned public-transport system. The hope is to cut traffic levels and bring in about €150m each year, to be used for transport and environmental initiatives. The city has also begun experimenting with a new type of asphalt that absorbs airborne pollutants.

Back on the rank

Taxi drivers in Milan and other Italian cities ended more than two weeks of strikes on July 18th, after the government agreed to tone down a plan to liberalise the sector. Politicians had hoped to increase competition and reduce notoriously high taxi-fares by making new taxi licences cheaper and easier to obtain. But after protests from drivers, which caused traffic chaos, the government agreed to scrap a measure that would have allowed a single person or company to buy multiple taxi licences. This would have forced independent drivers out of the market, opponents argued. Italian taxi drivers pay high fees to acquire licences, which they sell when they retire. The value of these licences would surely collapse if more were on the market.

Nonetheless, some progress was made in improving the taxi service: drivers agreed to let local administrations issue temporary permits during periods of high demand. And a single licence can now be shared by more than one person, allowing a particular cab to circulate for more hours during the week.

Uncovering the past

Archaeologists digging near Porta Romana, an ancient city gate, have found a common grave containing the skeletons of 157 people. They are thought to be victims of the bubonic plague that afflicted Milan between 1629 and 1631. The Lombardy archaeological authority made the discovery while surveying the site of a planned car park. The archaeologists—who also found pottery, rings, crucifixes and rosaries—will now study the bones to confirm the causes of death and reconstruct the victims' lives.

Archaeological finds are not uncommon in Milan, and often date from the period when the city was the capital of the western Roman Empire. The archaeological authority routinely conducts surveys before construction work begins on sensitive sites throughout the city. This particular discovery is not expected to slow the building of the car park.

Starry nights

The world’s second seven-star hotel is set to open in Milan later this year. The Town House Galleria, run by the Italian Town House Group, will be located above a Prada store in Galleria Vittoria Emanuele, a 19th-century shopping arcade that houses everything from boutiques to a McDonald’s restaurant. The owners won't say what will make this hotel extra luxurious. But it seems that nannies, butlers and drivers will be on hand to coddle guests staying in one of the 24 suites, and several luxury brands are expected to link their names to the project.

A hotel's star-rating is often decided by its own marketing department, as there is no international standard. The sail-shaped Burj Al-Arab in Dubai lays claims to being “the world's first seven-star hotel”, though this is a title that it bestowed upon itself.

Catch if you can

August 2006

Tracey Moffatt: Between Dreams and Reality

Until October 1st 2006

Spazio Oberdan is hosting the first Italian retrospective of the work of Tracey Moffatt, an Australian artist and filmmaker. Among the 120 photographs and films included in this show is Ms Moffatt’s breakthrough piece, “Something More” (1989), a series of nine photographs about a poor aboriginal girl’s ill-fated attempt to seek more from life. Ms Moffatt is herself of aboriginal descent, raised by a white family, and much of her work seems inspired by this ethnic complexity. The most recent piece here is last year’s “Under the Sign of Scorpio”, which depicts famous women, such as Indira Gandhi, Hillary Clinton, Whoopi Goldberg and Catherine Deneuve, all of whom share the artist's star sign. Films include the critically acclaimed “Night Cries: A Rural Tragedy”, the tale of an aboriginal woman nursing her dying white mother, shown at the Cannes Film Festival in 1990.

Spazio Oberdan, Viale Vittorio Veneto 2. Tel: +39 (0)2 7740 6300. Open: Tues-Sun 10am-7.30pm (until 10pm Tues and Thur). Tickets: €4.10.

More from the Milan cultural calendar