Via della Spiga

Brief information

Via della Spiga did not become a fashionable street right away: as recently as the early 1960s, there were bakeries, slaughterhouses, hair salons, and other ordinary urban establishments here. Today, the same street is considered one of the boundaries of Milan's fashion district, and its address is associated with boutiques, restaurants, designer and furniture stores, and branches of Prada and Dolce & Gabbana.

The main interest of Via della Spiga lies in its sharp change of scale without a change in the urban fabric itself. A space of simple services turned into one of the world's expensive streets; because of this, the paving stones, pedestrian layout, and shop windows function not as a backdrop, but as signs of the street's new role. The name also leaves a double trace: it may come from the noble Spiga family or from an inn with an ear of wheat on its facade.

What to notice right away

It makes sense to compare several physical features of the street. The pedestrian zone with paving stones shows that the space is now designed for slowly looking at shop windows, not only for everyday movement. LED lighting emphasizes the street's modern transformation: in the source, it is explicitly described as environmentally friendly, meaning that part of the renewal concerns not only commerce but also urban infrastructure.

The windows of boutiques and designer stores should be read alongside the older memory of the place. The possible “ear of wheat” in the origin of the name recalls an inn, while the memorial plaque on the Garzanti publishing house building at number 28 links the street with Gio Ponti, who lived here from 1944 to 1996. In this way, Via della Spiga is visible not simply as a row of expensive facades: in its details, the craft, everyday, architectural, and fashion layers of one short Milanese street collide.