Ten years of hard perseverance were required of the eclectic architect Andreani, from Mantua, to achieve a division into lots of part of the Serbelloni property.

The new buildings’ layout along a symmetrical axis was devised to conserve and compliment the ancient gardens. Andreani developed two of the lots obtained. The building on the corner of Via Serbelloni displays obvious classical elements, such as distorted and discontinuous tympanums and cornices, applied to the plastered wall, with marked chiaroscuro effects.

At No. 2, Via Melegari stands the ten-storey Palazzo Fidia, full of overhangs and recesses. The typical Lombard brick and ceppostone surfaces are riddled with a disorderly montage of bow windows and turrets, neo-Romanic arches and protruding canopies. In 1950, film director Michelangelo Antonioni used this building for his first full-length movie, Story of a Love Affair, set in the social context of Milan’s upper class.