Whence it's a very short distance to the heart of the land? (5)

I believe the answer is:

milan

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'whence it's a' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this definition defines the answer.

'short distance to the heart of the land?' is the wordplay.
'short' means to remove the last letter.
'distance' becomes 'mile' (mile is a unit of distance).
'to the heart of' indicates the central letters.
The centre of 'land' is 'an'.
'mile' with its final letter taken off is 'mil'.
'mil'+'an'='MILAN'

'very' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for milan that I've seen before include "North Italian city" , "N. Italian city" , "Italian city with La Scala opera house" , "Northern Italian city" , "province" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.

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