Chinatown (Via Paolo Sarpi)

Milan's Chinatown is the oldest and most established Chinese community in Italy — centred on the pedestrianised Via Paolo Sarpi between Porta Volta and Piazzale Cimitero Monumentale, where Chinese-Milanese families (many descended from immigrants who arrived from Wenzhou in the 1920s) have created a neighbourhood that blends Italian and Chinese commercial culture with a fluency that only a century of coexistence can produce.

The food is the main attraction for non-residents. The restaurants along Via Sarpi and the surrounding side streets serve Wenzhounese, Sichuanese, Cantonese, and northern Chinese cuisine at prices that make the centro's trattorias look extravagant. Ravioli Zhonghua (famous for their handmade dumplings in dozens of fillings), the Sichuan hotpot restaurants, and the bakeries selling both Italian cornetti and Chinese steamed buns represent the culinary cross-pollination that makes this neighbourhood unique. The Chinese supermarkets stock ingredients that serious Asian cooks can't find elsewhere in Milan.

Via Sarpi's pedestrianisation in 2011 transformed what had been a traffic-choked commercial street into one of Milan's most pleasant walking experiences. The Chinese New Year celebrations (usually late January or February) are the neighbourhood's annual spectacle — dragon dances, firecrackers, and food stalls draw tens of thousands of visitors to a neighbourhood that spends the rest of the year functioning as a quiet, working community. The Cimitero Monumentale at the street's northern end provides an architecturally dramatic bookend to the walk.