Every design for Milano

Milan began, so its founding story goes, as a settlement of the Celtic Insubres; the Romans who took it renamed it Mediolanum, and for more than a century it was the capital of the western Roman Empire. Today it is Italy's second city and its economic capital, home to the Borsa Italiana, the Teatro alla Scala, Milan Fashion Week and two of Europe's great football clubs, AC Milan and Inter.

The city lies on the flat Po Valley in western Lombardy, between the Ticino and the Adda, with the Po to the south and Lake Como to the north. Beneath its streets runs a tangle of springs, channels and canals, some of them dug in Roman times. People build careers here and raise families here, and whether you were born in Milan or arrived for work, it has a way of claiming you.

And then there is the Castello Sforzesco, the castle of the Sforza dukes who made the Duchy of Milan a power of the Renaissance. Put it on your chest and you carry the city's quiet boast with you: Milan works hard, and still knows how to look good.