28 min
60 min
M2 · tram 2 · tram 3 · tram 9
49.3 / km²
1
2
1,009
−5% vs city
Counted from OpenStreetMap and Inside Airbnb (CC BY 4.0)
Staying in Navigli
The Naviglio Grande and the Naviglio Pavese meet at the Darsena, and both banks are bars, cheap restaurants and, on the last Sunday of the month, a 400-stall antiques market. From about 18:00 the towpaths fill and stay full; this is where Milan drinks, and it is genuinely good at it.
By daylight it is a different proposition. Beyond the water there is little to see - the district is residential, the buildings are ordinary, and every sight on your list is a metro ride away rather than a walk. Porta Genova on M2 is inside the district and gets you to the Duomo in about ten minutes, which you will use, because the walk is nearly half an hour.
Book here if the evening is the point of the trip. Book one street back from the water, on Via Casale or Via Corsico, unless you want the towpath noise until 02:00 through a single-glazed window. And check the dates: the canals are drained for cleaning in the spring and autumn asciutta, and for those weeks the view from the room is an empty concrete channel.
What works
- The best concentration of bars and cheap kitchens in the city, on the doorstep
- M2 at Porta Genova reaches the Duomo in about ten minutes
- The antiques market on the last Sunday of the month is worth planning around
- Rates undercut Ticinese and Brera for a room of the same size
What does not
- Twenty-eight minutes on foot to the Duomo, so you commit to the metro
- Canalside rooms hear the drinking until about 02:00 from Thursday on
- Little reason to be in the district before the evening starts
- The canals are drained for weeks in spring and autumn for cleaning
Southern Milan is chiefly a residential part of Milan. While you can find a couple of old landmarks in here, there aren't as much of them as in the Centro Storico, and this part of the city is more "local" and "ordinary".Another place where you can go is the Navigli quarter, near Porta Ticinese Avenue and XXIV Maggio Square, where you can find a lot of small pubs, open air cafes and restaurants by the water canals (navigli).