M forMilan

For many, the strong ties between Pirelli and Milan can be explained by a century-and-a-half of interconnected life, made up of constant change, continuous transformation and a sense of the future. A dialogue that has allowed both to grow and evolve together. It is no coincidence, perhaps, that the Pirellone, the skyscraper designed by Gio Ponti, and the company’s headquarters for so many years, is one of the city’s most iconic symbols. Or that, during the 1980s, a new neighbourhood of Milan with university premises, research centres and the world headquarters of Pirelli, was built in Bicocca, on one of the company’s early sites, and transformed into a true "company campus".

by Michele Masneri

Pirellians in Milan

Many cities acquire a certain charm when deserted, but Milan is one of those that gains colour and energy from its people, renewing itself over the decades thanks to this superpower

There are cities that are simply made to be empty (like Rome, which is so beautiful when deserted) and others that make no sense at all without any people in them, like Milan. The pandemic has proven this to us: Milan is at its best when it is busy welcoming people, rising to the occasion when queues are forming, into what in today's social distancing times are referred to as "gatherings".
Rest assured, arriving in Milan used to be somewhat frightening. It was a grey metropolis (grey because of the fog, before global warming); and it was full of people, busy people to be exact, who came to Milan filled with hopes and dreams, people who were in quite a hurry. The "Pirellone" (the Pirelli skyscraper) towering in front of the Central Railway Station welcomed the new arrivals like an Egyptian or Assyrian- Babylonian temple and it has always been a beacon: a beacon and a landmark for the newcomers needing to find their bearings in the city of progress when it was still foggy. A winning combination that constitutes an ode to Lombardy. The Pirellone also became a huge showcase for Pirelli products. A beacon, a showcase and dreams: this is Milan in a nutshell.
Milan is no New York, but its sheer flow of human beings is quite similar, and someone may remember that when the city was advancing and enterprising before Covid-19, young people were rushing to go there, Rome was a little resentful and many Italians were in two minds whether to admire or envy the city which the Expo had helped to recover economically, but which appeared to be "bullying" the rest of Italy somewhat. This was also due to that particular attitude, that touch of presumptuous self-confidence that the Milanese tend to exude when everything is going well. After all, "Power is nothing without control" is a claim that would work just as well for all the Milanese.

MicheleMasneri

Bio

is an Italian journalist and writer. A former foreign correspondent in San Francisco for Il Foglio, he now writes about culture and design for the paper. He is the author of the novel Goodbye Monti and Steve Jobs Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, a collection of reports from California in the Trump era.