Point of interest
Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II
in Milan, Italy
A glass-roofed 19th-century shopping arcade beside the Duomo, often called Milan's drawing room, lined with cafés, luxury boutiques and mosaic floors.
Where it is
The Galleria is a covered arcade linking Piazza del Duomo directly with Piazza della Scala in the city centre.
Address: Galleria Vittorio Emanuele Secondo, 20121 Milan
What it is
Beneath its glass dome and four cruciform galleries run luxury boutiques, historic cafés and restaurants, making it one of the oldest shopping centres in the world. A popular custom is to spin on the heel on the testicles of the floor mosaic bull, said to bring good luck.
History
Designed in 1861 and built between 1865 and 1877 to plans by Giuseppe Mengoni, it is one of Italy's earliest monumental iron-and-glass arcades. Mengoni fell to his death from scaffolding just days before the opening, shortly before King Vittorio Emanuele II gave the structure its name.