Milan is a city transformed after a decade of redevelopment
Milan’s transformation began about a decade ago with the Porta Nuova and CityLife projects in particular and later with Expo 2015, all of which brought infrastructure development and improved the quality of the city, according to Giacomo Morri of the SDA Bocconi School of Management.
Morri added that Milan also became a touristic city. Previously, it was unusual to come to Italy to visit Milan but nowadays visitor numbers are one of the highest compared to traditionally touristic cities.
“And, from a commercial perspective, we have to keep in mind that Milan hosts 13 universities so provides a lot of young people for companies,” Morri said.
Also, in addition to the large developments there has been a lot of refurbishment of offices in central areas and an improvement of stock overall.
Lastly, Milan is the right size for a city in which to live because it has everything found in a larger metropolitan area in a workable sized city of less than 1.4 million inhabitants. “It’s very easy to live in and this has attracted a lot of people back from other countries, back from London, for example.”
He said that Rome is very different because it is six times larger and is the political capital of Italy so a lot of activity is public sector related.
