Artistic canals

Artistic canals
Lombardia
Magazine: March 2008

«What motivates you, o man, to abandon your city habits and go to country places if not the natural beauty of the world which, if considered well, is the very source of your sense of sight you?» Leonardo da Vinci was right. Today his question seems even more current for he who leaves Milan to discover unexpected corners of beauty. If the architect who designed the large cover of the canals in Milan confessed his regret for having taken away the city’s best feature, those nostalgic for the past find traces of beauty of the Milanese canals in Darsena where the Grand Canal crosses the Pavese canal. Along the two banks: artesian workshops, fashionable bars and restaurants, the San Cristoforo church, and the dams designed by Leonardo. Only a short distance from the city, you can discover a world that has remained almost identical to that of centuries ago when the Milanese aristocrats passed their “holidays” in the villas constructed on the towline of the Grand Canal. If you go towards Pavia from Abbiategrasso, you cross the Parco del Ticino. Woods and farmhouses are the dominating themes here. In between, a place of incomparable beauty: the abbey of Morimondo.