GALLERIA VITTORIO EMANUELE II
Glass roofs and mosaic pavements adorn this luminous gallery, which is now lined with cafés and elegant boutiques.
It's the most famous shopping mall in the city. For its construction, a call for projects was launched: 176 designs were submitted, and Giuseppe Mengoni won. The gallery was built in 1867, six years after the unification of Italy by Vittorio Emanuele II of Savoy. Its dome (47 m high) was one of the first glass and iron constructions in Europe. It was no easy feat to complete, as it cost the life of its architect, Giuseppe Mengoni, who fell from scaffolding. At the intersection of the two transverse alleys, the upper part of the elegant building facades is decorated with allegories of the main Italian cities that were once the capitals of Italy: Milan, Florence, Rome and Turin. Until the 1960s, the gallery was considered by the Milanese to be the salotto di Milano ("Milan's living room"), a traditional meeting place and promenade. Today, without having lost any of its charm, it is above all a passageway between Piazza del Duomo and Piazza della Scala, lined by a string of cafés and luxury boutiques. You'll notice the bull mosaic in the middle of the square: it would be a good thing to trample on it... An old legend has it that you have to turn around three times with the heel of your right foot on the bull's genitals. Unfortunately, this ritual is damaging the mosaic and requires regular restoration.
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