Milan is very urban and very smoggy with a lot of traffic. There are cars, motorcycles, and mopeds zipping everywhere just like the cliche about Italians driving around a rotary. That being said, this city is well worth visiting just for the food, shopping, and hospitality. There are cleaner, more picturesque places in Italy, like the Alps or Lake Maggiore, but I have been to those places and nobody has been as warm and as welcoming to this American traveller as the Milanese. Everybody I encountered was courteous and helpful, from my hotel concierge, to the waitresses in the restaurants, to the pharmacist, to the sales clerks at H & M. If you even TRY to speak Italian they will meet you more than halfway and you will all end up laughing about your communication gap over a bottle of wine. Thats right I said wine! Wine is cheaper in Milan than Coca-Cola! At any hole-in-the-wall, dive restaurant you can purchase an outstanding, superior quality bottle of local wine for $4-$10 tops. And speaking of those hole-in-the-wall dive restaurants, there are bistros tucked down hidden alleys that are so tiny they seat only 10 customers. They all feature fresh (by fresh I mean caught or picked that morning) homemade dishes that are scrumptious and cheap, cheap, cheap! The seafood in Milan is unbelievably fresh. The pizza is so good, you'll never be satisfied with another slice of American pizza. Milan is the fashion capital of Italy, need I expound on the shopping? When I visited, I was on a multi-country excursion, but I reserved all my shopping for Milan. You can shop for anything there, from cosmetics to children's clothes, to high-end modern furniture, to priceless antiques. The prices are reasonable and the variety of choices are endless. You can even shop from your hotel room! There are shops, boutiques, and salons everywhere, most within walking distance of your hotel. My only regret was having to leave Milan, especially without one of those chic model haircuts.