Via Madonnina was like a village in the centre of the city
Brera was once a red light district in the heart of Milan.
Yes, what is now the city’s most elegant and elite district was once a working-class area.
At number 6 on Via Madonnina, until about the 1970s, there was the garbage collector’s depot, while at number 23 there was a closed house.
Every morning they went out with their carts equipped with buckets and brooms and returned at the end of work. During the week they all lived together, like a real community, as none of them had a car to get around and it was difficult to get back to the family between shifts, someone occasionally hired a bicycle.
The street sweepers were then moved elsewhere and house number 6 became a warehouse for impounded cars, later a council house, which still exists today.
Photo: Repubblica Milano
