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Event Information:
La
Festa di San Silvestro is celebrated
December 31 on New Year's Eve. Huge
midnight fireworks displays
celebrate the coming of the new
year. Most towns have public
displays in a central square but
private parties will also include
firecrackers or sparklers, too, and
will continue for a long time.
Dancing is also popular and many
towns have public music and dancing
before the fireworks. Rome, Milan,
Bologna, Palermo and Naples put on
huge popular outdoor shows with pop
and rock bands. These events can
sometimes be seen on television,
too.
A
great way to spend the New Year in
Milan is at the Piazza Castello and
the Piazza del Duomo. With the
gorgeous cathedral as the backdrop,
people come here to dance and enjoy
live music with friends. The
celebration lasts all night and
fireworks are set off as people wish
each other a Happy New Year. This is
perhaps the largest of all the New
Years parties in Milan. There is
also a fireworks display and
celebration that takes place at
Castello Sforzesco.
There
are few remains of the ancient Roman
colony that later became a capital
of the Western Roman Empire. During
the second half of the 4th century,
Saint Ambrose, as bishop of Milan,
had a strong influence on the layout
of the city, redesigning the centre
(although the cathedral and
baptistery built at this time are
now lost) and building the great
basilicas at the city gates:
Sant'Ambrogio, San Nazaro in Brolo,
San Simpliciano and Sant'Eustorgio,
which still stand, refurbished over
the centuries, as some of the finest
and most important churches in
Milan. The largest and most
important example of Gothic
architecture in Italy, the Milan
Cathedral, is the fourth largest
cathedral in the world after St.
Peter's Basilica in Rome, the
Cathedral of Seville and a new
cathedral in the Ivory Coast. Built
between 1386 and 1577, it hosts the
world's largest collection of marble
statues with the widely visible
golden Madonna statue on top of the
spire, nicknamed by the people of
Milan as Madunina (the little
Madonna), that became one of the
symbols of the city.
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