Milan Hotel
Hotels in the city of Milan are often required for tourists who require short term accommodation. Some tourists may want to visit the city to see the culture, fashion, sports, history and architecture of the famous Italian city. Some may want to see the sports, or fashion which Milan is renowned for. Some may want to stay at a cheap hotel or a luxury hotel. Some may want to stay at high status hotels or famous hotels. Some may want to stay at hotels that have good reputation. Many may want to stay at a hotels that are well known. Some may want to stay at a hotels that large or small. Some may want to stay at hotels that have good parking facilities.
Hotels in the city of Milan are often required for tourists who want to see the culture and history of the famous city. Some may want to stay at hotels with a new or classic design.
Milan is the second largest city of Italy, located in the plains of Lombardy. It is the capital in the Province of Milan.
Milan is renowned as one of the world capitals of design and fashion. The English word milliner is derived from the name of the city. The Lombard metropolis is famous for its fashion houses and shops (such as along via Montenapoleone) and the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele in the Piazza Duomo (reputed to be the world's oldest shopping mall). The city hosted the World Exposition in 1906.
The Olona river, the Lambro river and the Seveso creek run through Milan. Olona and Seveso run mostly underground.
During the Middle Ages, Milan prospered as a center of trade due to its command of the rich plain of the Po and routes from Italy across the Alps. The war of conquest by Frederick I Barbarossa against the Lombard cities brought the destruction of much of Milan in 1162. After the founding of the Lombard League in 1167, Milan took the leading role in this alliance. As a result of the independence that the Lombard cities gained in the Peace of Constance in 1183, Milan became a duchy. In 1208 Rambertino Buvalelli served a term as podestà of the city, in 1242 Luca Grimaldi, and in 1282 Luchetto Gattilusio. In 1395, Gian Galeazzo Visconti became duke of Milan. In 1447 Filippo Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan, died without a male heir; following the end of the Visconti line, the Ambrosian Republic was enacted. However, the Republic collapsed when in 1450, Milan was conquered by Francesco Sforza, of the House of Sforza, which made Milan one of the leading cities of the Italian Renaissance.
[edit] Periods of Spanish, French and Austrian domination
The French king Louis XII first laid claim to the duchy in 1492. At that time, Milan was defended by Swiss mercenaries. After the victory of Louis's successor Francis I over the Swiss at the Battle of Marignano, the duchy was promised to the French king Francis I. When the Habsburg Charles V defeated Francis I at the Battle of Pavia in 1525, northern Italy, including Milan, passed to the House of Habsburg. In 1556, Charles V abdicated in favour of his son Philip II and his brother Ferdinand I. Charles's Italian possessions, including Milan, passed to Philip II and the Spanish line of Habsburgs, while Ferdinand's Austrian line of Habsburgs ruled the Holy Roman Empire.
However, in 1700 the Spanish line of Habsburgs was extinguished with the death of Charles II. After his death, the War of the Spanish Succession began in 1701 with the occupation of all Spanish possessions by French troops backing the claim of the French Philippe of Anjou to the Spanish throne. In 1706, the French were defeated in Ramillies and Turin and were forced to yield northern Italy to the Austrian Habsburgs. In 1713, the Treaty of Utrecht formally confirmed Austrian sovereignty over most of Spain's Italian possessions including Lombardy and its capital, Milan.
Napoleon conquered Lombardy in 1796, and Milan was declared capital of the Cisalpine Republic. Later, he declared Milan capital of the Reign of Italy and was crowned in the Duomo. Once Napoleon's occupation ended, the Congress of Vienna returned Lombardy, and Milan, along with the Veneto, to Austrian control in 1815. During this period, Milan became a centre of lyric opera. Here Mozart wrote three operas, and in a few years La Scala became the reference theatre in the world, with its premieres of Bellini, Donizetti, Rossini and Verdi. Verdi himself is now tumulated in a precious Institute, the "Casa di Riposo per Musicisti", the Verdi's present to Milan. In the 19th century other important theatres were La Cannobiana and the Teatro Carcano.
On March 18, 1848, the Milanese rebelled against Austrian rule, during the so-called "Five Days" (It. Cinque Giornate), and Field Marshall Radetzky was forced to withdraw from the city temporarily. However, after defeating Italian forces at Custoza on July 24, Radetzky was able to reassert Austrian control over Milan and northern Italy. However, Italian nationalists, championed by the Kingdom of Sardinia, called for the removal of Austria in the interest of Italian unification. Sardinia and France formed an alliance and defeated Austria at the Battle of Solferino in 1859. Following this battle, Milan and the rest of Lombardy were incorporated into the Kingdom of Sardinia, which soon gained control of most of Italy and in 1861 was rechristened as the Kingdom of Italy.
The political unification of Italy cemented Milan's commercial dominance over northern Italy. It also led to a flurry of railway construction that made Milan the rail hub of northern Italy. Rapid industrialization put Milan at the centre of Italy's leading industrial region, though in the 1890s Milan was shaken by the Bava-Beccaris massacre, a riot related to an high inflation rate. Meanwhile, as Milanese banks dominated Italy's financial sphere, the city became the country's leading financial centre. Milan's economic growth brought a rapid expansion in the city's area and population during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Main sights
The Duomo, the world's largest collection
of marble statues with the widely visible golden Madonna statue on top of the
spire, la Madunina (little Madonna), the symbol of Milan.
Teatro alla Scala.
Milan is also one of the most important centres in the world for Opera lirica,
with its famous Teatro alla Scala (La Scala).
The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele
II, a large, covered arcade linking the Duomo's piazza with the Teatro alla Scala.
The Castello Sforzesco and the Parco Sempione.
The Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio
The Palaeo-Christian Basilica of San Lorenzo
The Biblioteca Ambrosiana, containing
drawings and notebooks by Leonardo da Vinci among its vast holdings of books,
manuscripts, and drawings, and is one of the main repositories of European culture.
The city is also the home of the Brera Academy of Fine Arts.
The church of
Santa Maria delle Grazie, which houses one of the most famous paintings of Leonardo
da Vinci, The Last Supper (L'ultima cena or Il cenacolo).
The church of Santa
Maria presso San Satiro, with a famous trompe l'oeil traditionally ascribed to
Bramante
The Cimitero Monumentale di Milano.
The Pinacoteca di Brera,
Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Poldi Pezzoli, the Bagatti Valsecchi Museum and the Musei
del Castello galleries, which host a great number of pictorial masterpieces.
Milan Hotel
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