572km (355 miles) NW of Rome, 140km (87 miles) NE of Turin, 142km (88 miles) N of Genoa

Southern Italians, perhaps resentful of the north's hard-earned prosperity, sometimes declare that the Milanese are like the nearby no-nonsense Swiss. With two million inhabitants, Milan (Milano) is Italy's most dynamic city. Milan is Italy's window on Europe, its most sophisticated and high-tech metropolis, devoid of the dusty history that sometimes paralyzes modern developments in Rome and Florence or the watery rot that seems to pervade Venice.

Part of the work ethic that has catapulted Milan into the 21st century might stem from the Teutonic origins of the Lombards (originally from northwestern Germany), who occupied Milan and intermarried with its population after the collapse of the Roman Empire. In the 14th century, the Viscontis, through their wits, wealth, and marriages with the royalty of England and France, made Milan Italy's strongest city. And Milan initiated a continuing campaign of drainage and irrigation of the Po Valley that helped to make it one of the world's most fertile regions.

In the 1700s, Milan was dominated by the Habsburgs, a legacy that left it with scores of neoclassical buildings in its inner core and an abiding appreciation for music and (perhaps) work. In 1848, it was at the heart of the northern Italian revolt against its Austro-Hungarian rulers and, with Piedmont, was at the center of the 19th-century nationalistic passion that swept through Italy and culminated in the country's unification. During this same period, Milan (through the novelist Manzoni) was encouraging the development of a Pan-Italian dialect.

Today, Milan is a commercial powerhouse and, partly because of its 400 banks and major industrial companies, Italy's most influential city. It's the center of publishing, silk production, TV and advertising, and fashion design; it also lies close to Italy's densest collection of automobile-assembly plants, rubber and textile factories, and chemical plants. Milan also boasts La Scala, one of Europe's most prestigious opera houses, and a major commercial university (the alma mater of most of Italy's corporate presidents). In addition, it's the site of several world-renowned annual trade fairs.

With unashamed capitalistic style, Milan has purchased more art than it has produced and has attracted an energetic group of creative intellects. To make it in Milan, in either business or the arts, is to have made it to the top of the pecking order. If you came to Italy to find sunny piazzas and lazy bright afternoons, you won't find them amid the fogs and rains of Milan. You will, however, have placed your finger on the pulse of modern Italy.