The picturesque character of courtyards on the Navigli.
Led by the stories of our guides, we walk among the most picturesque courtyards of Milan’s Navigli, even more beautiful in the season of the blossoms that fill the terraces of the railing houses with color. The history of this piece of the city begins as early as the 12th century with the construction of the first navigable section of the urban water network.For centuries Milan was a city of water, traversed by rivers and furrowed by canals regulated by ingenious technical devices. Barges and barges sailed right into the heart of the city center to transport goods and commodities, including even the splendid blocks of Candoglia marble needed for the construction of the Duomo!
The Navigli from typical railing houses to evening nightlife
Today, although famous for its nightlife, the Navigli district preserves intact the charm of Old Milan, revealing places where time seems suspended: during the guided tour, we will cross the threshold with the guides of a typical council house, in Corso San Gottardo 18, one of the few surviving examples of antica casèra; we will walk along a stretch of road along the Darsena, the ancient Milanese port, today wonderfully redeveloped; we will recall, reading them together, the verses of Alda Merini, the “poetess of the Navigli,” to whom a museum space is dedicated in the former tobacco shop in Via Mangolfa; we will look out, in Alzaia Naviglio Grande 4 Milano, onto a magical courtyard, home of the Naviglio Grande Association , where among flowers and lush plants peep the stores of artists and artisans. And again, between Via Vigevano and Alzaia Naviglio Grande, a sequence of unusual corners among courtyards, railing houses and ancient wash-houses: among the latter, how could we not mention the famous Vicolo dei Lavandai, where for centuries the Milanese washed clothes on the so-called brellin, now the name of a historic Milanese restaurant. The last stop on the tour led by our guides will be the courtyard of the Engraving Center: here beyond the seventeenth-century threshold and the lush vegetation that adorns the old building, lies a veritable forge of works of art, stopped in time by the grip of the press. Here Gigi Pedroli, founding artist of the Center, still works on his creations and masterfully teaches the ancient manual art of engraving.
The Navigli inside and outside Spazio Alda Merini
The tour, on some special dates in our programming, is completed with a stop at Spazio Alda Merini, in the former tobacco shop in Via Magolfa 30, which has now become, thanks to Piccola Ape Furibonda, an innovative cultural hub dedicated to the memory of Alda’s work: a place for lectures, meetings with writers, performances, literary aperitifs and performative visits to Alda Merini ‘s Room, which comes to life again through the objects that characterized it and to the many fragments of the poet’s life , investigated and reconstructed under the supervision of Donatella Massimilla.
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