Indian businesses and services in Milan, Italy

Milan's South Asian population is large but made up of communities that rarely appear under one heading. Milan is one of the main centres of Italy's Sri Lankan community, and Bangladeshi and Pakistani residents are also numerous. Indians living in the city itself tend to be professionals, students at the Politecnico and Bocconi, and staff of multinational companies. Italy's much larger Punjabi Sikh community lives mainly in the farming provinces of the north, Brescia among them, and many Sikhs work in dairy farming.

The street most associated with South Asian shops is Via Padova, which runs north-east from Piazzale Loreto and is lined with grocers, phone shops and small restaurants run by Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, Pakistani, North African and Latin American owners. Metro lines 1 and 2 meet at Loreto, which makes it easy to reach.

Most gurdwaras and many Hindu temples serving Lombardy are outside the city, in the towns where Punjabi and Tamil families live, and are reached by car or regional train rather than by metro. Vaisakhi, in spring, is the biggest date of the Sikh year, and the larger gurdwaras of northern Italy draw thousands of worshippers for it. Diwali, Navratri and Holi are marked by temple and association events. For anyone newly arrived, the community associations linked to these temples are often the best source of practical help.