Milan

Milan Cathedral is the cathedral church of Milan, Italy. Dedicated to Santa Maria Nascente , it is the seat of the Archbishop of Milan, currently... Cardinal Angelo Scola. The Gothic cathedral took nearly six centuries to complete. It is the fourth largest cathedral in the world and the largest in the Italian state territory. Milan's layout, with streets either radiating from the Duomo or circling it, reveals that the Duomo occupies what was the most central site in Roman Mediolanum, that of the public basilica facing the forum. Saint Ambrose's 'New Basilica' was built on this site at the beginning of the 5th century, with an adjoining basilica added in 836. When a fire damaged both buildings in 1075, they were later rebuilt as the Duomo In 1386, Archbishop Antonio da Saluzzo began construction in a rayonnant Late Gothic style more typically French than Italian. Construction coincided with the accession to power in Milan of the archbishop's cousin Gian Galeazzo Visconti, and was meant as a reward to the noble and working classes, who had suffered under his tyrannical Visconti predecessor Barnabò.
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The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II is a double arcade in the center of Milan, Italy. The structure is formed by two glass-vaulted arcades intersecting... in an octagon covering the street connecting Piazza del Duomo to Piazza della Scala. The Galleria is named after Vittorio Emanuele II, the first king of the Kingdom of Italy. It was originally designed in 1861 and built by Giuseppe Mengoni between 1865 and 1877. The street is covered by an arching glass and cast iron roof, a popular design for nineteenth-century arcades, such as the Burlington Arcade in London, which was the prototype for larger glazed shopping arcades, beginning with the Saint-Hubert Gallery in Brussels , the Passazh in St Petersburg , the Galleria Umberto I in Naples and the Budapest Galleria. The central octagonal space is topped with a glass dome. The Milanese Galleria was larger in scale than its predecessors and was an important step in the evolution of the modern glazed and enclosed shopping mall, of which it was the direct progenitor. It has inspired the use of the term galleria for many other shopping arcades and malls.
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Santa Maria delle Grazie is a church and Dominican convent in Milan, northern Italy, included in the UNESCO World Heritage sites list. The church... contains the mural of the Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci, which is in the refectory of the convent. The Duke of Milan Francesco I Sforza ordered the building of a Dominican convent and a church in the place where a small chapel dedicated to St. Mary of the Graces was. The main architect was Guiniforte Solari, the convent was completed by 1469 while the church took more time. The new duke Ludovico Sforza decided to have the church as the Sforza family burial place and rebuild the cloister and the apse which were completed after 1490. Ludovico's wife Beatrice was buried in the church in 1497. The apse of the church is widely believed to be by Donato Bramante. However, there's no real evidence of the fact, but that Bramante lived in Milan at the time, and he is once quoted in the acts of the church . He continued the gothic style from the first part, but mixed with Romanesque influence. In 1543, the Holy Crown chapel received a painting by Titian, The Crowning with Thorns.
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The Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio is a church in Milan, northern Italy. One of the most ancient churches in Milan, it was built by St. Ambrose in... 379-386, in an area where numerous martyrs of the Roman persecutions had been buried. The first name of the church was in fact Basilica Martyrum. When St. Ambrose arrived in Milan, the local churches were in conflict with each other over the conflict between Arianism and the Nicene Creed as well as numerous local issues. He was firmly in support of the Nicene side of the conflict, and wanted to make northern Italy into a pro-Rome stronghold. He did this through both preaching and construction. He built three or four churches surrounding the city; Basilica Apostolorum , Basilica Virginum . A fourth church, Basilica Salvatoris is attributed to him as well, but may not actually be from the 4th Century. These churches were dedicated with anti-Arian language and as symbols of the wealth and power of the pro-Nicene faction in Milan.
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Castello Sforzesco is a castle in Milan, Italy, that used to be the seat and residence of the Duchy of Milan and one of the biggest citadels in... Europe and now houses several of the city's museums and art collections. The original construction on the site began in the 14th century. In 1450, Francesco Sforza began reconstruction of the castle, and it was further modified by later generations. A number of these rooms originally had elaborate internal decoration - the best known of these being the Sala Delle Asse with surviving ceiling paintings by Leonardo da Vinci. After the French victory in the 1515 Battle of Marignano, the defeated Massimiliano Sforza, his Swiss mercenaries and the cardinal-bishop of Sion retreated into the Castello Sforzesco. However, King Francis I of France followed them into Milan, and his sappers placed mines under the castle's foundations, whereupon the defenders submitted. Under the Spanish domination, the castle was developed: between 15th and 16th century, was protected by 1000 to 3000 men, and was one of the biggest citadels in Europe; a huge star fort was built, with 12 bastions.
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The Pinacoteca di Brera is an art collection in Milan, Italy. It contains one of the foremost collections of Italian paintings, an outgrowth of the... cultural program of the Brera Academy, which shares the site in the Palazzo Brera. The Palazzo Brera owes its name to the Germanic braida, indicating a grassy opening in the city structure: compare the Bra of Verona. The convent on the site passed to the Jesuits , then underwent a radical rebuilding by Francesco Maria Richini . When the Jesuits were disbanded in 1773, the palazzo remained the seat of the astronomical Observatory and the library founded by the Jesuits. In 1774 were added the herbarium of the new botanical garden. The buildings were extended to designs by Giuseppe Piermarini, who was appointed professor in the Academy when it was formally founded in 1776, with Giuseppe Parini as dean. Piermarini taught at the Academy for 20 years, while he was controller of the city's urbanistic projects, like the public gardens and piazza Fontana, .
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The Museo Poldi Pezzoli is an art museum in Milan, Italy. The museum was originated in the 19th century as private collection of Gian Giacomo Poldi... Pezzoli and his mother, Rosa Trivulzio, of the family of the condottiero Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, and has a particularly broad collection of Northern Italian and Netherlandish/Flemish artists. Sited in the centre of the city, works on display include Italian painters such as: Mariotto Albertinelli; Giovanni d'Alemagna, the uncle of Antonio Vivarini; Sofonisba Anguissola; Lorenzo Bartolini; Fra Bartolomeo; Luca Baudo; Alessandro Mazzola Bedoli; Jacopo Bellini; Giuseppe Bertini; Vitale da Bologna; Francesco Bonsignori; Paolo Borroni; il Moretto from Brescia; Botticelli, Giulio Campi; Canaletto; Francesco Capella ; Cristoforo Caselli; Jacopo del Casentino;G.B.
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The Bagatti Valsecchi Museum is a not-for-profit historic house museum in the Montenapoleone district of downtown Milan, northern Italy. The Italian... Renaissance art and decorative arts collections of the barons Bagatti Valsecchi are displayed in their home, as they wished them to be. Hence, visitors may view not only particular pieces of art, but also the house's authentic ambiances, expressive of late 19th century aristocratic Milanese taste. The Bagatti Valsecchi Museum’s permanent collections principally contain Italian Renaissance decorative arts , some sculptures , and many paintings. European Renaissance weapons, armor, clocks and a few textiles and scientific and musical instruments complete the collection assembled by the Barons Bagatti Valsecchi. The Bagatti Valsecchi Museum, although originally intended as a private home, not a gallery, has an interesting collection of Italian Renaissance paintings.
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Gabriele Lavia is an Italian actor, film director and theatre director. Lavia was born in Milan, Lombardy. Since 1970 he has had roles in nearly... thirty films and television programs. He is probably best known in the United States for his appearances in several horror films, including Beyond the Door , Dario Argento's Deep Red , Inferno , and Sleepless , and Pupi Avati's Zeder , in which he starred. In Italy, Lavia has had a long and successful career as a theatrical actor and director. He was the Artistic Co-director of the Eliseo Theatre of Rome , Artistic Director of the Stable Theatre of Turin and Artistic Director of the Festival of Taormina Art . He has directed six films, most of which he has written or co-written, including Il Principe di Homburg , based on Heinrich von Kleist's play Prinz Friedrich von Homburg, for which he won the Nastro d'Argento "Best New Director" Award, and Sensi , an erotic thriller.
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Wilma De Angelis is a popular Italian singer and presenter. She is very famous for her talk-show in the kitchen, and her cooking abilities.

Franca Valeri is an Italian actress. Valeri was born in Milan as Alma Franca Maria Norsa. She adopted her surname in the 1950s as an homage to the... French critic and poet, Paul Valéry. Despite the old age and suffering Parkinson's disease, she's still very active on the Italian theatrical stage. Across the season 2005-2006 she performed her own monologue La Vedova Socrate and Les Bonnes, by Jean Genet. Valeri started her career on the radio, where she created the character of "Signorina Cesira" and "Signora Cecioni", exhilarating sketches centering on the idiosyncrasies of the Italy of 1950s. She co-starred important films hits, such as The Sign of Venus or Il vedovo, although most of her characters are supporting role. In the 1960s Valeri also frequently worked for Italian TV. Directed by Antonello Falqui, she starred in Studio Uno, Le divine and Sabato Sera. In the eighties and early nineties she starred in a series of successful commercials for Pandoro Melegatti, which were well-received and stretched over a number of years .
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Angela Finocchiaro is an Italian actress.

Maurizio Nichetti is an Italian film screenwriter, actor and director. In 1998, he was a member of the jury at the 48th Berlin International Film Festival.

Adriana Asti is an Italian actress. She was married to Bernardo Bertolucci.

Luchino Visconti di Modrone, Count of Lonate Pozzolo was an Italian theatre, opera and cinema director, as well as a screenwriter. He is best known... for his films The Leopard and Death in Venice . One of seven children, Visconti was born in Milan into a noble and wealthy family, one of the region's richest. His father Giuseppe Visconti di Modrone was the Duke of Grazzano and Count of Lonate Pozzolo. In his early years he was exposed to art, music and theatre, and met the composer Giacomo Puccini, the conductor Arturo Toscanini and the writer Gabriele d'Annunzio. During World War II Visconti joined the Italian Communist Party. Visconti made no secret of his homosexuality. His last partner was the Austrian actor Helmut Berger, who played Martin in Visconti's film The Damned. Berger also appeared in Visconti's Ludwig in 1972 and Conversation Piece in 1974 along with Burt Lancaster. Other lovers included Franco Zeffirelli, who also worked as part of the crew in production design, as assistant director, and other roles in a number of Visconti's films and theatrical productions. He died in Rome of a stroke at age 69.
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Nino Rota was an Italian composer and academic who is best known for his film scores, notably for the films of Federico Fellini and Luchino... Visconti. He also composed the music for two of Franco Zeffirelli's Shakespeare films, and for the first two films of Francis Ford Coppola's Godfather trilogy, receiving for the latter the Academy Award for Best Original Score in 1974. During his long career Rota was an extraordinarily prolific composer, especially of music for the cinema. He wrote more than 150 scores for Italian and international productions from the 1930s until his death in 1979—an average of three scores each year over a 46 year period, and in his most productive period from the late 1940s to the mid-1950s he wrote as many as ten scores every year, and sometimes more, with a remarkable thirteen film scores to his credit in 1954. Alongside this great body of film work, he composed ten operas, five ballets and dozens of other orchestral, choral and chamber works, the best known being his string concerto.
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Claudio Abbado, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , is an Italian conductor. He has served as music director of the La Scala opera house in Milan,... principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, principal guest conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, music director of the Vienna State Opera, and principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic orchestra from 1989 to 2002, when he retired from the position for health reasons. Born in Milan, Italy, Abbado is the son of the violinist and composer Michelangelo Abbado, who was his first piano teacher, and the brother of musician Marcello Abbado. After studying piano at the Milan Conservatory, in 1955 Claudio Abbado studied conducting with Hans Swarowsky at the Vienna Academy of Music. In 1958 he won the international Koussevitsky Competition for conductors, which resulted in a number of operatic conducting engagements in Italy, and in 1963 he won the Dimitri Mitropoulos Prize for conductors, allowing him to work for five months with the New York Philharmonic.
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Adriano Celentano is an Italian singer, songwriter, comedian, actor, film director and TV host. Celentano was born in Milan at 14 Via Gluck, about... which he later wrote the famous song "Il ragazzo della via Gluck" . His parents were from Foggia, in Apulia, and had moved north for work. According to urban legend, before beginning his singing career, Celentano was a student of Ghigo Agosti during Agosti's 1955-1956 Northern Italian tour, which was also guitarist Giorgio Gaber's debut. Heavily influenced by his idol Elvis Presley and the 1950s rock revolution and by the American actor Jerry Lewis, he has retained his popularity in Italy for the last 40 years, selling millions of records and appearing in numerous TV shows and movies. In the latter respect, he has also been a creator of a comic genre, with his characteristic walking and his facial expressions. For the most part, his films were commercially successful; indeed in the 1970s and part of the 1980s, he was the king of the Italian box office in low budget movies. As an actor, critics point to Serafino , directed by Pietro Germi, as his best performance.
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Fabio Lanzoni ; born March 15, 1959, widely known simply as Fabio, is a famous international Italian fashion model, spokesperson, author and actor... who appeared on the cover of hundreds of romance novels throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Fabio starred in the syndicated TV series Acapulco H.E.A.T. as the role of Claudio. He was also featured in calendars, led a fragrance campaign for Mediterraneum by Versace, and landed a role in commercials for "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter!". He appeared in "The Bold and the Beautiful" a number of times, as a close friend of the character Sally Spectra . He appeared in one episode of Step by Step called "Absolutely Fabio". Fabio appeared as well on Ned's Declassified. He was also in a Big Time Rush episode and reprised his role in the Nickelodeon television series once again in their third TV movie, Big Time Christmas. In 2010, he appeared in an episode of The Suite Life on Deck called "Senior Ditch Day" as Captain Hawk.
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Riccardo Chailly, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI is an Italian conductor. He started his career as an opera conductor and gradually extended his... repertoire to encompass symphonic music. Chailly was born in Milan in a musical family. He studied composition with his father, Luciano Chailly. Chailly studied at the music conservatories in Perugia and Milan. He later studied conducting with Franco Ferrara. In his youth, Chailly also played the drums in a rhythm-and-blues band. At age twenty, Chailly became assistant conductor to Claudio Abbado at La Scala, where he made his conducting debut there in 1978. From 1982 to 1988, Chailly was chief conductor of the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and from 1983 to 1986 principal guest conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. From 1986 to 1993, he led the Teatro Comunale of Bologna. Chailly made his debut with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam in 1985.
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