The paper makes some reflections on the limits and possible developments of urban history starting from the Milanese case and the experience of Urban Genoma (UG), a re-ality that intends to enhance the urban heritage on several levels, using the traces of the past to build in a coordinated way a shared identity able to reinforce the recognisability and attractiveness of places. In this regard, Milan represents a very interesting laboratory because, despite its significant historical importance, in the collective imagination it ap-pears as a city ‘without history’, looking to the future rather than to the past.
After reconstructing the initiatives that have dealt, from different perspectives, with the Milanese reality and its past, the contribution dwells on two areas, practised by UG, that seem particularly promising: the first is the application of new technolo-gies to urban history, the second is the public valorisation of knowledge that makes ‘the past in the present’ experimentable and usable. The aim is to represent in new and more easily understandable and usable ways a tangible and intangible cultural-historical heritage which, although preserved, is becoming less and less accessible. At the same time, it is essential that the knowledge and information owned by the specialists be able to take forms that make it usable, but above all attractive and interesting, for a broader public as well, so as to overcome the self-referentiality of many discourses on cities and their development.