Galleria Vittorio Emanuele restoration to finish by April 2015

The restoration of Milan's Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, which began in March 2014, is scheduled to conclude in April 2015, in time for Expo 2015. The project involves structural repairs, stone surfaces, and decorative elements, but the gallery has remained open thanks to a mobile scaffolding platform that allows work to proceed while keeping the ground floor accessible. The city of Milan has invested €5 million in extraordinary maintenance, while private partners Prada, Versace, and Feltrinelli have contributed an equal amount for conservative restoration of interior walls. In early 2015, Seven Stars Galleria Italia, the luxury hotel within the gallery, joined the project by funding the creation of a tourist walkway on the existing service catwalks atop the monument. In exchange, the hotel will receive a two-year concession to operate the paid-access route. The walkway will start from courtyards at via Silvio Pellico 2 and Piazza Duomo 21, where two elevators are being built, and will include a museum path with panels narrating the gallery's history from its 1865 construction by Giuseppe Mengoni to the current restoration. The project was approved on the proposal of assessor Daniela Benelli.