Verziere

[2][3] The first Verzee was probably held in the main plaza of Milan, Piazza del Duomo, until the early 16th century, when it was relocated in the context of a thorough urban reorganization dictated by the municipal authorities.

[4] The market was thus relocated to what is now Piazza Fontana, a prominent square adjacent to the Duomo, where the Palace of the Archbishop ("Palazzo dell'Arcivescovado" in Italian) is also located.

The 18th century scholar Carlo Torre mentions the Verziere in his essay Il ritratto di Milano ("Portrait of Milan", 1714), reporting that the area used to be a "wonderful garden".

In 1966, a statue of poet Carlo Porta, realized by Ivo Sioli, was placed in the old Verziere location of Piazza Santo Stefano.

While the Verziere was celebrated as the "heart" of Milan by several poets and writers, it also had the reputation of being an unsafe district, populated by thieves, prostitutes, and tencitt (in Milanese, meaning "black stained people", in reference to the darsena workers who transported coal and wood).