  A short overview is presented of several topics concerning the evolution of
the Milky Way (MW) in a cosmological context. In particular, the metallicity
distribution of the MW halo is derived analytically and the halo metallicity
and abundance patterns are compared to those of Local Group galaxies. The
inside-out formation of the MW disk is supported by the observed evolution of
the abundance gradients, while their magnitude suggests that the role of the
Galactic bar has been negligible. Finally, the empirical foundations
(age-metallicity relation and metallicity distribution) of the evolution of the
solar neighborhood, which is the best studied galactic sub-system, have been
seriously questioned recently.
