Coin's Edge

Here, elderly Italians who have lived in Pero for years coexist with families who left the city for larger villas with back gardens, and with young people who arrived with the waves of immigration to Italy and found Pero the only affordable way to be near Milan. All of them commute elsewhere, yet they share common ground in this imperfect area, where industrial and residential constructions meet, and people still walk home from the supermarket between congested streets, narrow cycle lanes and a lack of open green space. Once a medieval agricultural settlement, Pero was transformed by the railways and factories of the 19th century. It was then shaped by inexpensive post-war housing that gave it a uniform, utilitarian appearance, emphasising the irony of its peripheral yet central role in the city's fabric.