Milano is ready to welcome you back. Starting May 15, borders are open to EU (and Schengen) citizens and UK residents. Visitors coming to Milano won’t have to quarantine or be subjected to any travel restrictions, as long as they prove they either had an EU-approved Covid-19 vaccine, recovered from the disease, or tested negative 48 hours prior to coming into Italy. Since late April, cafés, bars, restaurants, museums and shops have been open. The Milanese are enjoying city parks, outdoor dining and evening aperitivos. The city is springing back to life, and a certain euphoria is starting to take hold, while a flurry of events and inaugurations occur in every neighborhood. Symbol of this renaissance was the re-opening of La Scala for a live audience of 500 spectators, who saw famed directors Riccardo Chailly and Riccardo Muti directing the Scala Orchestra playing a selection of the theater’s immortal arias.

Interni, the international architecture magazine, has devoted a long article featuring the best of Milano mural art in the city’s changing neighborhoods of Navigli and Ortica. The periodical investigates the strategy pursued by the Office for Art in Public Space of the Municipality of Milan headed by Marina Puglisi and the curator hired by the city for street art and graffitis, Alice Cosmai. Among ideas and future projects, there is a census of the Milanese public art heritage, a cross-city art bicycle path, a re-creative park dedicated to architect Lina Bo Bardi, and further work on tactical squares to create new social spaces in neighborhoods. “There is no real historicization of the interventions carried out in Milan,” says Alice Cosmai: “We have in mind a website able to map, catalog and create itineraries dedicated to existing public art."

The digital edition of 2021 Bio€quity will kick off on Monday, 17th May and end on Wednesday, 19th May, with a closing round table chaired by the Mayor of Milano Giuseppe Sala. Bio€quity Europe is the Continent’s most important gathering of venture capitalists, investors, scientists, and startups working with the bio-pharma sector. It is a unique opportunity for Milano’s biotech ecosystem to attract financial dealmakers looking for investor-validated life science companies, as well as for pharmaceutical licensing professionals to assess the top prospects in the field. Milano will also host the 2022 edition of Bio€quity Europe, which will be a large-scale physical event taking place in the city in the spring of 2022.