Surridge moved out of Prada's granny-flat long ago: for three years he has had his own apartment in Porto Venezia on the northern fringe of central Milan. 'It's a great area,' he says. 'Residential, sure, but full of creative people - artists, designers and architects - and lots of immigrants too, particularly Somalis. Like the rest of Milan, social life revolves around restaurants, not bars or nightclubs - society here is about eating rather than drinking. In Milan you don't even have that coffee culture you get in New York where people sit in cafes for hours on end. Here you drink your coffee at the bar and go about your business, there's no lingering. There is an exception to that rule, though, called La Belle Aurore [via Abamonti 1, Milan] - a great and really un-Milanese place that's full of intellectuals sitting around righting the world.'
Milan, Surridge says, is a perfect city for work. 'This is an industrial town, and work comes first. It's a doddle to get around. I cycle everywhere, especially now I've bought a fold-up bike I can take into meetings with me - you can't leave anything on the street because it will be stolen in a heartbeat. And the particular thing about Milanese is that they will work hard during the week, see their friends and families for meals in the evenings, but at the weekend head for the hills en masse. Come the first hint of spring, everyone goes to the beaches at weekends. And as soon as the snow is good enough in the autumn, everyone goes up to the mountains to ski. They invest a lot in their weekends, so Milan itself feels deserted at weekends sometimes.'
