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The Simplon Park and the Veiled Lady
Sempione Park Milan's most important green lung. It is located right in the center, close to the city's main attractions and exudes a mysterious charm, especially at nightfall. The park embraces the Castello Sforzesco.
The origins of Sempione Park date back to the late 1800s and the architect Emilio Alemagna, who created an English-style park with shrubs, avenues, and pools of water. Even today it is still a popular place for the Milanese to visit and full of attractions such as the Triennale, the Civic Arena, the Branca Tower and the Civic Aquarium. At one time the Sempione area, being a large area was outside the city walls and was used as a cemetery.
The appearance of the park's most famous ghost dates back to an ancient time, a hypothetical early November of an unspecified year in the late 19th century. The ghost is reputed to be a grand dame of the city.
Legend has it that around the turn of a very troubled nineteenth century, a certain Alvisio, returning from an evening with friends, decided to walk through the park at night. Suddenly Alvisio found at his side a beautiful veiled lady dressed in black. They began to talk, and the lady invited him to follow her through the park's avenues until they arrived in front of a marvelous villa parked in mourning.
Alvisio decided to spend the night with the veiled lady inside the villa accompanied by the music of an orchestra. The next day the lady escorted Alvisio back along the avenues of the park.
After that, the lady disappeared among the trees of the park without a trace. Alvisio told his friends what had happened and discovered that he was not the only one who had had this encounter. But not only that, some of his friends revealed to him that under the veil, the lady did not hide a beautiful face but a skull.
Only those who fulfilled her wishes were escorted back unharmed through the park's avenues. No one, however, has ever been able to find the mystery mansion again.
Since then, centuries have passed and no more stories are told of other encounters with the veiled lady in Sempione Park.
So why not visit the park? Besides being a beautiful Milanese place, it is full of charm, history and mysteries ...never solved.
