Galleria Vittorio Emanuele Secondo
Named for Victor Emmanuel II, the first king of the Kingdom of Italy, the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele Secondo is Milan’s oldest active shopping arcade and a defining landmark of the city centre. You’re moving through a four-story, double arcade laid out over an octagon, spanning the street that links Piazza del Duomo to Piazza della Scala. Architect Giuseppe Mengoni designed it in 1861, and construction ran from 1865 to 1877, with the arcade officially founded on 13 September 1867. Above, a glass-and-cast-iron roof covers the passageways in the 19th-century style that became the prototype for later glazed shopping arcades. At the centre, a glass dome crowns the octagonal space, and four mosaics show the coats of arms of Turin, Florence, Rome—and Milan—binding the gallery to the political geography of a newly unified Italy. …
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