The Fashion Quadrilateral

Milan is undoubtedly Italy’s fashion capital and one of its internationally-known symbolic locations. And it is in the so-called central "Quadrilateral" area that the major national and global luxury brands have established their businesses over the years. One of the access points, via Montenapoleone, is the most important and luxurious street in Milan and, with the parallel streets - Via della Spiga and via Sant’Andrea, via Gesù, via Santo Spirito - and via Borgospesso running perpendicularly it forms the heart of the district, historically known as the Quattro Borghi. Visitors strolling around the Quadrilateral can delve in a very special atmosphere of elegant showrooms and alluring window displays.

Nestled in amongst the boutiques, however, there are also prestigious palazzi that play host to important cultural entities: for example, the Bagatti Valsecchi house museum and the historical collections of Palazzo Morando dedicated to costumes, fashion and image. Leaving via Montenapoleone in the direction of Corso Matteotti, we arrive in Piazza San Babila: until the early thirties the open space in front of the church of San Babila - built in the eleventh century upon the ruins of an earlier place of worship and remodelled several times over the years - was initially a crossroads built in correspondence to the ancient porta Orientale, today's Porta Venezia. The current layout of the piazza is the result of a series of urban planning proposals summarized in the 1934 city planning regulations.