CELEBRATING 75 YEARS OF WHERE - Where Milan

WHERE NOW MilanOur Lady of DanceMILANO IN75 MINUTESCity CentreIn Italy it is considered extremely impolite to ask a woman’sage. However, in order to pay tribute to the lady in question, wehave to make an exception: in 2011, Carla Fracci, former primaballerina (and a living symbol) of the Teatro alla Scala Corps deBallet will celebrate her 75th birthday. Hers is the fairytale ofa thoroughbred Milanese, the daughter of a tram driver who,thanks to an unequivocal talent, became the youngest soloiston one of the world’s most prestigious stages. Associated withseveral of the world’s most romantic roles (from “Juliet to Giselle”,from “La Sylphide” to “Francesca da Rimini”), Carla Fracci hasdanced with the best partners of her generation (from RudolfNureyev to Vladimir Vasiliev, from Mikhail Baryshnikov to ErikBruhn) and collaborated with some of the most importantcompanies in the word (from the London Festival Ballet to theStuttgart Ballet, from the Royal Ballet of London to the RoyalSwedish Ballet in Stockholm, right up to the American BalletTheatre in New York). The history of classical ballet is linked bothto the Teatro alla Scala and, even before then, to that of Milanitself. This form of ballet originated in Italian Renaissance courts,notably in the Sforza family’s splendid palace in Milan.If you only have a little more than an hour to get anidea of the essence of the city, then start your tourfrom the Duomo (Map F5), one of the most amazingGothic cathedrals in Europe. After admiring it fromthe piazza, turn left and, amidst bars and boutiques,enter the stunningly elegant Galleria VittorioEmanuele II until you reach piazza della Scala.From here, continue along via Manzoni and thenturn right into via Montenapoleone: you will findyourselves in the Quadrilatero della Moda, the mostfamous (and luxurious) shopping district in the world(pages 24, 25, 26). When you’ve finished shopping,after a stroll through San Babila, get back onto corsoVittorio Emanuele II and return to the Duomo: thebest of Italian style, in just a few kilometres.The Fiat Topolino Hits the RoadOn 15 June 1936, a car destined to make history appeared in Milan. Called“Topolino” (the Italian name for Mickey Mouse), it featured the rounded,appealing lines of the “little mouse”. Designed by Dante Giacosa, the Topolinowas a small though complete vehicle, one of the most futuristic of its kind,built for two people with luggage and equipped with a 567 cc four-cylinderengine which enabled it to reach a speed of 80 km per hour. It cost just over5,000 lire, the equivalent, at that time, of a year’s salary of a blue-collar worker!Production totalled 100 cars a day and its success was immediate: the Topolinobecame a cultural phenomenon and heralded the birth of Post-War Italiandesign. To see more examples, visit the La Triennale Design Museum in vialeAlemagna (see The Guide – Museums & Attractions, p. 59).8 WHERE MILAN I JANUARY 2011