Alda Merini is the poet and writer who more than any other represented the spirit of the city of Milan in the last century. She was able to tell – to national and international audiences – not only her own feelings, dreams, contrasts and thoughts, expressed in an unmistakable style, at times blatantly ironic, at others deeply mystical, but also the places of her city and the people who accompanied her throughout a lifetime. In particular, like no one before she brought into the literary imagination theatmosphere and customs of the area where she always lived, until her death, between the Ticinese district and the Navigli. Among her favorite places put into rhyme in her poems how can we forget Bar Charlie, or the tobacco shop where she used to buy cigarettes, at number 30 Via Magolfa, home of Spazio Alda Merini, a place of inclusion and memory on the Navigli. Today, this space has been completely renovated and wants to open itself to the city life of the Lombard capital to remember and enhance one of the most important figures of the Italian literature of the 20th century, proposing a multidisciplinary and engaging cultural entertainment: a mission that, you know, we too cannot but share!
For these reasons, Neiade Tour & Events is pleased to be able to collaborate as a tour partner with the new Spazio Alda Merini, a precious house-museum and place of inclusion, enhancement and territorial cultural promotion. A project aimed at the general public, Milanese and not only, which is developed through events and cultural activities with an experiential and performative slant, to which are integrated some of our most iconic guided tours… right in the neighborhood that best tells of the Old Milan sung by the“Poetess of the Navigli“. Therefore, walking among old courtyards, characteristic railing houses, new and colorful Street Art works, rereading some of Alda’s verses, we will try to regain thesoul of the neighborhood, getting to know its older identity and more recent history. The final stop of our itineraries on the Navigli can only be the renovated Spazio Alda Merini, where a new experience will always be waiting for us: a reading, a performance, a meeting with writers and poets, a performative visit to Alda’s Room interpreted by the actresses of CETEC Dentro/Fuori San Vittore… or even a simple “feminine” aperitif in the most important place of memory of Alda Merini’s work present in Milan.
The programming of the tours in partnership with Spazio Alda Merini, combined with a rich range of proposals for groups and schools, will combine with the Spazio’s cultural schedule, always under the banner of dynamism and fluidity! By signing up for some of Neiade Tour & Events ‘ tours, membership in Spazio Alda Merini will also be possible at a discounted price.
Spazio Alda Merini, among the Navigli of Milan
Spazio Alda Merini stands right in the heart of the neighborhood that was home to the Poetess throughout her life, at 32 Magolfa Street. Small and precious museum house is located there where there used to be an old tobacco shop, a meeting place for many inhabitants of the area… even Alda Merini used to buy her iconic cigarettes there. Following Alda’s death, her four daughters donated to the City of Milan all the furniture in her bedroom, in the house on Ripa di Porta Ticinese: today this furniture has found a home in the very same former tobacco shop, brought to new life thanks to the work of ATS Piccola Ape Furibonda, a reality named after the writer’s well-known poem and born from the synergy of the four Milanese associations Cetec, Ebony, Errante e Promise, all working on the social and artistic front in favor of women’s fragile situations. The associations, under the leadership of Cetec – a pioneering social art theater company – have come together with the aim of creating a Community Open Space where art and culture can fosterwomen’s empowerment in an inclusive and vital way.
The heart of the house museum is Alda’s Room. The furniture, the emblematic “Wall of Angels,” and the objects that populate the room-from cigarettes to Coca Cola cans, from posters to playbills, from the piano to the typewriter-speak for the poetess and tell visitors about her story and her creative“chaos…. so much so that they are not even dusted, for dust is“made of crumbled butterfly wings: these are the thoughts that, after flight, become matter and like dust remain as testimony; do not dust it, you erase life and memories,” as Alda herself wrote.
Not only that, the Space is a place of remembrance but also of meeting and sociability, thanks to the bar called Bar Charlie, in honor of the locale beloved by the writer, and the indoor and outdoor areas dedicated to reading, study and a wide variety of aggregative activities: outside, a green space, framed by magnificent murals, will always be the privileged setting for meetings and performances.
Guided tours for the public to discover the Navigli and Spazio Alda Merini
On the Navigli between courtyards and railing houses
A guided walking tour among the neighborhood’s greenest courtyards and most striking railing houses, a veritable riot of flower-filled balconies and lush vegetation, all the way to iconic sites in the area, such as the Centro dell’Incisione. Among the streets that branch off from the Milanese Navigli , we will dive into the history of Old Milan, which we will also relive through the magnificent verses of Alda Merini. Finally, we will land in the very place in Milan that best recounts the figure of the Poetess, where an ever-changingspecial experience will be waiting for us: a conference, a meeting with writers, a play, a literary aperitif, and much more!
Milan Street Art Tour, Navigli and Ticinese district
A walking tour through the streets of the Ticinese district and along the Navigli, to admire the real works of art that have taken over the walls, gates and doors of the area. From a form of protest to a form of art recognized worldwide, Street Art is also conquering the streets of Milan, and in particular those of Milan’s nightlife district. We will finally land at Spazio Alda Merini, where in addition to the new murals that color Via Magolfa overlooked by the outdoor garden, we will also get to know the “wall of angels” created by the poetess and tell, in ever different ways, her story!
Other articles from our blog that you might be interested in:
Navigli of Milan: what to see in one of the symbolic places of Milan
Downtown Milan: what to see in the Lombard capital
Cover photo by Giuliano Grittini, taken from this page.
