Chinatown (Paolo Sarpi), Milan

Chinatown (Paolo Sarpi) unfolds as a lively commercial neighborhood, with Via Paolo Sarpi forming its main pedestrian street. The shopfronts express a history that began in the nineteen twenties, when immigrants from Wencheng County in Zhejiang established small textile and leather workshops here. Those beginnings still echo through the district’s silk and leather stores, while today’s businesses also include fashion boutiques, salons, libraries, travel agencies, medicine centres, and restaurants serving Zhejiang cuisine.

Italy's longest-established and most populous Chinese community has about 21,000 people recorded in 2011. Its Milanese story reaches back to the area around Via Canonica, where silk work—especially tie making—became an early speciality. During the Second World War, workshops shifted to leather production for military belts.

The district later expanded from wholesale clothing and leather goods into a broad retail landscape, including technology, food, personal services, and Chinese-language businesses. Along Via Paolo Sarpi and nearby streets, Chinese characters and dense shopfronts give the neighborhood its distinctive identity. Each year, Chinese New Year brings a procession of a pair of dragons along the main street, accompanied by dancing and drums, drawing visitors from across the city.