An ancient route connected Milan to Carate Brianza through the city and because the location was 14 kilometres (9 mi) from Milan it was called Nova Milanese (nine is nove in Italian).[citation needed]
At the beginning of the 20th century the main economic activity was the breeding of silkworms. This continued until the 1920s when there was the advent of synthetic fibers. In addition to the soil grains, it produced excellent grapes, in fact Nova Milanese appears along with 20 other countries as the best producer of wine in the ranking by the Milanese poet Carlo Porta in 1815.
