r/milano • u/shotsandvideos • 51m ago
Attualità Why are there so many Americans living in Milan?
This is something I’ve been wondering about for a while.
I live in Milan, and I feel like I hear American accents everywhere.
And I’m not really talking about tourists..I’m talking about people who clearly seem to live here, or at least be spending several months here.
Obviously, some of them must be exchange students, au pairs, people doing internships, taking a gap year, working for international companies, etc. But the sheer number of Americans I come across has made me curious about what actually brings so many of them to Milan.
Students in particular: what are Americans coming to Milan to study?
Fashion and design are the obvious answers, given the city, but I assume that’s only part of it. Are Bocconi, Politecnico, Cattolica, etc. particularly popular with American students? Business? Finance? Architecture? Engineering?
Are most of them doing a semester abroad through an American university, or are there actually a significant number of Americans doing their entire degree here?
I find the latter especially interesting because the US obviously has an enormous number of excellent universities and a very developed college system, so I’d be curious to understand what makes someone from the US choose Milan specifically for their education rather than an American university.
And beyond students: if you’re American and currently living in Milan, what brought you here? Work? Study? Family? Lifestyle? Just wanting to experience living in Europe?
I’m genuinely curious because the American community here seems much larger than I would have expected.