The world is beautiful because it is varied — diversity is the source of beauty and interest. Uniformity would be boring; it is the difference between things that makes each one interesting.
This tolerant and optimistic proverb from Lombardy reflects the experience of a region that has been a crossroads of peoples, cultures, and commerce for millennia. The Roman legions, the Germanic Lombards (who gave the region its name), the Spanish, the French, the Austrians — all passed through and left something behind. The silk industry brought Chinese techniques; the textile industry brought workers from across Italy; the fashion industry brings international designers, buyers, and tastes. Milan learned early that variety was not a threat but a resource. The proverb is used to defend individual choices, to celebrate cultural diversity, and to rebuke intolerance. In a city that built its wealth on trading with the whole world, the variety of the world was the source of everything.
Lombard tolerant proverb from a region that has experienced two thousand years of cultural mixing. Milan's commercial success has always depended on engaging with variety rather than rejecting it.
A Milanese food journalist on the city's multicultural cuisine
Susheria giapponese, kebab turco, trattoria milanese — a duecento metri l'una dall'altra. Al mond l'è bel perché l'è vari.
Japanese sushi bar, Turkish kebab, Milanese trattoria — two hundred metres from each other. The world is beautiful because it is varied.
A Lombard mother defending her son's unconventional career choice
— Fa il fotografo? Non ti aspettavi il ragioniere? — Al mond l'è bel perché l'è vari. È felice, guadagna, cosa voglio di più?
— He is a photographer? Were you not expecting an accountant? — The world is beautiful because it is varied. He is happy, he earns, what more do I want?
A Milanese design school director on student diversity
Abbiamo studenti da quaranta paesi. Al mond l'è bel perché l'è vari — questa mescolanza produce cose che nessuno farebbe da solo.
We have students from forty countries. The world is beautiful because it is varied — this mixture produces things nobody would make alone.
Two Milanese friends debating personal taste
— Come puoi preferire il jazz al rock? — Al mond l'è bel perché l'è vari. Meno male che non siamo tutti uguali.
— How can you prefer jazz to rock? — The world is beautiful because it is varied. Thank goodness we are not all the same.