Navigli

Navigli is Milan's canal district, a neighbourhood built around two surviving waterways — the Naviglio Grande and the Naviglio Pavese — that were once part of a much larger network of canals Leonardo da Vinci helped engineer in the 15th century. For centuries these channels were working arteries of the city, used to transport marble for the Duomo and goods from the surrounding plains. Today the water still runs, lined now with low buildings painted in faded ochres and terracottas, their facades reflected in the slow current below.