Hello everyone! Apologies for the small break, but I am now back again writing about my travels and environmental thoughts. Where was I? The clue is in the title of this week’s blog – my hometown of Milan! After over seven months of being confined to Manchester (for obvious reasons), I managed to go back to see my family. The trip to Italy from the UK was slightly surreal. The airport was eerily empty, there were signs reminding people to wear their masks, and hand-sanitiser dispensers were scattered all around. However, this post will not be about travelling during COVID times or about being back home with my family, but rather about the Milan I rediscovered. Although I have grown up Milan and I have returned to my city regularly, I always saw this metropolis as many people do – the financial hub of Italy, the world capital of design and fashion and the Italian centre of manufacturing and media. I always saw Milan as a grey, highly urbanised old city covered in cobbles and concrete. Whenever I went on top of the Duomo’s terrace, all I could ever see was an endless concrete panorama enclosed by the Alps. Yet, during my latest visit, I realised that Milan is actually a lot greener than I thought. Perhaps, it was the tiredness I felt after being confined to the urban landscape post coronavirus lockdown, but I craved going to places where I could resonate with, even within the hectic metropolis. I found that Milan is full of green areas – you just need to know where to look. From its conception around 600 BC by the Celtic tribe of the Insubres, and its later conquest by the Romans in 222 BC, Mediolanum (as it was then called) went from being a damp marshland in the middle of the Po Valley to a prestigious centre of economic power. The water was abstracted from the plain, agricultural fields were created and canals were built, and the city grew. As Milan lived through several invasions, monarchic dynasties and major historical events, the environment in and around the city changed along with the ever-increasing population. Milan is now a mosaic of different eras of urbanisation and architecture, which is why is such an interesting city to visit. Yet, it has also lost so much of its original nature, and the Po Valley has become a sea of rice and corn fields among industrial estates and manufacturing plants. There are, however, some green pockets hidden behind the grey walls of old Neoclassical and Rationalist buildings, the result of Napoleon’s empire and Mussolini’s autocracy. Many of these nature spots are the product of recent efforts to make the city greener, while some are remnants of older heritage. Amid the most prominent nature spots are of course the city parks. Right in the middle of the city centre, sandwiched between the Sforza Castle and the Arch of Peace, is Parco Sempione. Once used as a parade ground for the soldiers stationed at the castle, this park, built in the1890s, is somewhere one can escape the city and enjoy a stroll or a bike ride between trees and ponds. Of similar style, and perhaps more historically interesting, are the Indro Montanelli Public Gardens, located near Porta Venezia. This park was created in the 1780s by Austrian rulers and built by prisoners, and in the 19th Century became the home of the Natural History Museo as well as Milan’s Zoo – a menagerie with giraffes, monkeys, bears, big cats and even an elephant – which was closed in 1992. This park is another great spot to spend time with friends, and perhaps ponder about the never-ending battle between humans and nature, of which Milan has been a witness for many centuries. More hidden inside the city, and more of a celebration to Milan’s history as a cultural hub, is the Orto Botanico di Brera. Located behind the Brera Academy of Fine Arts, the botanical gardens are a little oasis in the grey heart of Milan. This garden was originally used by Humiliati monks and Jesuits between the 14th and 16th centuries, but in 1774 it was established as a botanical garden when Maria Theresa of Austria turned the Palazzo Brera into a cultural centre. Now, the garden is a rich collection of plants ranging from more to less common, and encompassing many uses from medicinal to food, dyes to textiles. The Brera Academy even provides a little artistic-botanical booklet that gives information about the various plants depicted in their collection, in the work of artists such as Caravaggio and Raphael, and the meaning of their symbolism. Photos by @h_e_thacker Many other parks provide a chance for escapism in the outskirts of the city, such as the Parco di Trenno, Parco Nord, and Parco Forlanini and several others, but among them, two particular parks represent the determination of the Milanese to create something beautiful out of destruction. The Parco delle Cave was once a gravel quarry but in the sixties the cessation of the extraction activities led it to become an abandoned wasteland. In 2002, this land was restored into the third largest park of Milan, with agricultural allotments, farmsteads and three artificial lakes built from the remains of the quarries. Monte Stella, located not that far from the world-famous San Siro stadium, has a much heftier history. During World War II, Milan was heavily bombed by the British Army and the United States, and the rubble from the fallen and damaged buildings was used to build the hill of Monte Stella. Not only it represented hope for the city after the war, but was also a chance to put Milan’s position during the war behind and to start anew. Now, Monte Stella provides a space where people can enjoy differing landscapes and terrains without having to go very far out of the city. Perhaps the most inspiring projects of renewal and reconciliation between urbanisation and environment is the Bosco Verticale (Vertical Forest), located in the Porta Nuova district. Here, in 2014, architect Stefano Boeri designed two residential tower blocks that host 800 trees, 5,000 shrubs and 15,000 perennial plants, equivalent to over 30,000 square metres of woodland and undergrowth in only 3,000 square meters of urban land. Not only it brought a new green oasis into the city, but it also attracts more than 20 species of birds, and it can even absorb 30 metric tons of carbon dioxide every year. Milan is a testament to the rekindling of nature within a highly urbanised area with such a long history of management by the hand of humans. Though much of the greenness in Milan is hidden or indeed artificial, it represents the potential for humans and nature to coexist harmoniously even within urban landscapes, and I hope more cities will follow Milan’s example.
I’d be really interested in learning about the environmental projects in your hometown. Leave a comment below! Stay tuned and stay wanderlust, Dael
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