292 Hotels Milan - Italy

Milan (Italian: Milano; Milanese -dialect of Lombard-: Milán) is the main city in northern Italy, and is located in the plains of Lombardy, the most populated and developed region in Italy. The city proper has about 1,308,500 inhabitants (2004), but the population of the urban area (La Grande Milano, Greater Milan) is 4.280.820 people (2006 estimate). Calculated within European terms, Milan's metropolitan area covers an area similar to that of Paris with a population of more than 7 million people. Milan's so-called Città Regione (City Region) claims more than 9.4 million inhabitants. The Città Regione area is comparable to the Combined Statistical Areas (CSAs) of the United States. Milan's name has for many centuries been recorded as Mailand, which is still the German name of the city today. It comes from the Celtic Medelhan (meaning "in the middle of the plain") and was known as Mediolanum by the Romans. In the local dialect of Lombard, the city's name is Milán. Its province lies in the western part of Lombardy; it covers an area of 1,981 square kilometers and has a population of 3,839,818 (2004); in 1991, the population was 3,738,685. The province comprises 188 communes, ranging in population (2001) from Milan Municipality (1,308,311) to Nosate (638); the city of Milan has lost 113,084 inhabitants (8.3 percent), from 1991 to 2001. The city is famous for fashion firms and shops (via Montenapoleone) and the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele in the Piazza Duomo, reputed to be the world's oldest shopping mall. Milan is one of the world capitals of fashion—like New York City, Paris, London, Tokyo and sometimes Miami and Sydney—and design. The city is one of the major financial and business centres in Europe. Indeed the English word milliner is derived from the name of the city. Another famed product of the city is the traditional Christmas sweet cake Panettone. Milan is also famous for the Alfa Romeo motorcar and for its silk production. Inhabitants of Milan are referred to as "Milanese" (Italian: Milanesi or informally Meneghini or Ambrosiani from the patron of the city Saint Ambrose). Milan hosted the World Exposition in the 1906.