Milan's canal district before the afternoon aperitivo crowd
The Navigli are what remain of the canal system that Leonardo da Vinci helped design in the 15th century. Most of the canals were covered over in the 1930s. The two that survived — the Naviglio Grande and the Naviglio Pavese — run south from the Darsena and constitute the neighbourhood named after them.
The Navigli are what remain of the canal system that Leonardo da Vinci helped design in the 15th century. Most of the canals were covered over in the 1930s. The two that survived — the Naviglio Grande and the Naviglio Pavese — run south from the Darsena and constitute the neighbourhood named after them. On Sunday mornings the Naviglio Grande hosts the Mercatone dell'Antiquariato, an antique market that runs from the Darsena to the Alchimia bridge — three hundred dealers in furniture, prints, ceramics, textiles, and the accumulated domestic material of five centuries of Lombard households.
The market opens at eight and the serious buying is done before eleven, when the furniture dealers begin to pack. Come early. The print dealers are the most consistent value: Milanese architectural drawings, 19th-century maps, fashion plates from the 1870s, the illustrations from old encyclopaedias that are available in quantity and priced for the regular buyer rather than the tourist who has identified an antique market as a cultural activity. The ceramics stalls are good for faience and the particular cream-glazed earthenware of northern Italy that appears in quantities at Milanese markets because the houses that contained it are being emptied.
Walk the towpath along the Naviglio Grande before the market fills. The canal at eight in the morning has the water light that southern European cities produce when the sun is low and the building facades are reflected in water that is not quite still. The restaurants along the water will not open until noon; the bar at the end of the market strip makes coffee.
By midday the market is over and the aperitivo logistics begin. The Navigli is where Milan does its Sunday Campari — from one until four, standing at the bar or sitting at the canal-side terraces, eating the snacks that Milanese aperitivo includes and that are the closest the city comes to a free meal. This is not the tourist aperitivo of the centre; it is the neighbourhood ritual. The distinction is in the pace and the fact that the participants are here next Sunday as well.