The neighbourhood
The Navigli
The canals that built Milan, now the district where the city goes out in the evening.
A city of water
Milan has neither sea nor a great river, yet for centuries it was a city of water. The Navigli are a network of navigable canals dug from the 12th century onwards to link the city with the lakes and the Ticino river. The Naviglio Grande, the oldest, was completed in 1272; along its waters came the Candoglia marble for the Duomo, and the grain, wine and timber that kept the city alive.
Leonardo and the locks
At the end of the 15th century Leonardo da Vinci, working for Ludovico il Moro, studied the lock system that allowed boats to overcome differences in level. The Naviglio Pavese, linking Milan and Pavia, was only finished in 1819, and the Darsena, the dock at Porta Ticinese, was for a time one of the busiest river ports in Italy.
From port to neighbourhood
With the arrival of railways and cars the canals lost their purpose, and between the 1920s and 1930s the inner ring was covered over. The Naviglio Grande, the Naviglio Pavese and the Darsena — restored in 2015 — remained open. The old balcony houses, the artisans’ courtyards and the washhouses, like the Vicolo dei Lavandai, are still there.
Today
Today the Navigli are one of Milan’s liveliest districts: workshops, galleries, markets along the towpath, and at aperitivo time the banks fill with tables. Our apartments are a few steps from here, between Porta Genova and the Darsena: the centre is a walk away, the metro takes you anywhere, and in the evening you come home along the canal.