Milan is the sort of place where you can live for years without realising the treasures hidden away just around the corner. It arguably has a number of world-beaters, such as La Scala, but there are various other sights that are pretty much the finest that you can get in their class. Such as the Cimitero Monumentale, whose extraordinary treasures were introduced to me by a visitor to the city who has cemetery visiting as his major hobby. Strangely, most people in Milan seem to feel a sort of inferiority complex about their city and often run it down in conversation. This is fuelled by the journalists who do much the same thing in print. I recently read an article in which the city was criticised for having just 75 km of metro while London has 408 and Paris 200, but I couldn't help thinking, is this fair? Surely other things should be taken into account as well, such as the number of world-famous fashion designers based in the city, or furniture designers, or even car manufacturers, violin makers and piano accordion manufacturers (spreading the net a little wider to include the region). Very often I find myself in the rather surreal position of defending the merits of Milan in a group of Italian people whose prime thought seems to be to emigrate to Sydney or San Francisco as soon as they can get a work permit.

I am fascinated by the city, and so here are some of the articles that have appeared over past years in the magazine Hello Milano.