Memories of Milan bring images of the Duomo and Via Montenapoleone to mind, art and fashion remaining two of the reasons people like the city so much. But if you’ve visited, and especially if you’ve lived there and enjoyed your evenings and weekend the way locals do, then you must be fond of the navigli, Milan’s own canals.
Water isn’t the first thing that springs to mind when thinking about Milan: contrarily to other major cities in Italy and the world, the Lombardia capital wasn’t built around a river. There is no Po nor Tiber, no Thames nor Seine here. As early as the 12th century, in 1177, however, the Naviglio Grande, or Grand Canal, was inaugurated, making of it one of the oldest navigable canals in the continent: the Milanese understood how important waterways could be for their welfare and their economy. Today, the Naviglio Grande is the heart of Milan’s “movida,” the world of aperitivi and Dolce Vita alla Milanese, that so many missed during the pandemic, but its importance has been all economic and strategic for centuries: it was at the heart of a complex system of canals and waterways not much different from what we can still see today in Venice or Amsterdam.
The aim was to increase the city’s wealth and visibility and to make it better connected. And so, between the 12th and the 17th century, the navigli network was born and developed, also with the considerable help of iconic Leonardo, who did come out with an idea or two on how to make the system more efficient. In the 15th century, the navigli network connected the city to the Ticino River west and the Adda river east, while at its heart was the Cerchia Interna, or inner ring, a series of smaller navigli keeping together the whole system. Today, only a few vestiges of this glorious water network are still visible in the Navigli area, of course, and in the North of Milan, with the Martesana canal: everything else fell victim to time and progress, with most of the other canals being covered in concrete around the mid 20th century. They are still there, running underneath the surface of the city, but not many remember them anymore.
In recent years, another famous area of the navigli system was rescued from oblivion, the Darsena, or “dock.” Located at the junction between Naviglio Grande and Naviglio Pavese, in the past it was, believe it or not, one of the busiest ports in the country, used to transport goods of all kinds to Italy’s wealthiest city. In fact, it was here at the Darsena that boats filled with marble from the quarries of Candoglia would dock, their precious content to be used for the construction of Milan’s most iconic landmark, the Duomo. This went on up until the 1920s.
The Darsena was eventually decommissioned in the 1960s. Quickly, the area fell in disrepair and laid abandoned for decades, until 2015, when it was renovated in occasion of the Milan Expo. Today, the Darsena is active part of the city’s navigli borough, and it’s characterized by its many cafés, stores and restaurants. After the requalification of the Darsena, boat services– a smaller version of Paris’ famous bateaux mouches – has taken up, too: boats sail along the Naviglio Grande and dock at the Darsena, offering both an occasion to see Milan from a different perspective and something to look at while sitting with your Negroni along the canal.
The success of the “new” Darsena brought many to think it may be time to rediscover the navigli system in its entirety, by fully reopening Milan’s Cerchia Interna, today mostly running underground.
A project was presented in 2019, with the aim of completing it by 2026, just in time for the Winter Olympics Milan will co-host with Cortina d’Ampezzo. The idea is to reopen about 5 miles of canals, running from Cassina di Pomm (north of the city) to the Darsena (in the south), following the path of Milan’s medieval waterway system.
The project is strong and has the support of the local community, as the presence of organizations such as Riaprire i Navigli bears witness to. Indeed, recreating the Inner Circle would also be a way to requalify large areas of the city and to reduce, according to some, traffic and pollution. And while the project is undoubtedly ambitious, the example set by the Dutch city of Utrecht, whose circular waterway – covered, just like the Inner Circle during the 20th century – has been recently reopened, strengthens the hopes of supporters.
The next big thing is finding sufficient funds to carry out the project: a sum of around 500 million euro (or 610 million USD) is thought to be necessary, but the increased interest in the navigli could be a strong selling point to obtain relevant financing. Because the project could potentially bring together the city’s necessity for more green spaces, and also offer employment opportunities, a request to use some of the coronavirus recovery fund the EU will give Italy has been submitted, with specific plans currently being created by a Milanese engineering firm.
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