If you were catapulted into these places without knowing you were in Milan, you could seriously believe you were elsewhere. Here are the places where you can experience this feeling.
10 PLACES in Milan where it DOES NOT SEEM to be in Milan
#1 Piazza Sant’Alessandro, a corner of Rome in Milan
Piazza Sant’Alessandro is a corner of Rome in the city, a jewel wedged between Piazza Missori and Via Torino, which can be reached in a labyrinth of alleys. The name of the square is due to the baroque church of the same name, one of the most beautiful in Milan. Not far from here is a piece of the Università Statale, the cradle of humanistic culture.
#2 The workers’ village of via Lincoln, Notting Hill or the Milanese Burano
The workers’ village in via Abramo Lincoln, a neighborhood of houses designed and conceived in the nineteenth century by a building cooperative for the workers and railwaymen of the former Porta Tosa station. The characteristic of this neighborhood are the multicolored colored villas, hence the nickname of the rainbow district, which recall the English atmosphere of Notting Hill or those of Burano, a Venetian island.
#3 Citylife and Porta Nuova, where Milan looks like New York
Walking through the greenery of the new park where the old Milanese fair once stood, in the west of the city, or in the paths of the Biblioteca degli Alberi (another big park), one gets the impression of being in New York. The skyscrapers that reach even more than 200 meters in height in Citylife and Porta Nuova, overlooking everything else, give the idea of being in a small Central Park.
#4 Parco delle Cave, the countryside in the city
In the Parco delle Cave, one of the largest park in Milan, it seems to be in the open countryside. Inside there are 3 “large lakes”, some where you can practice sport fishing, and there are two ancient farmhouses, Cascina Linterno and Cascina Caldera. A true natural oasis in the city rich in native vegetation and fauna such as amphibians, reptiles, birds, rabbits and even foxes.
#5 Baggio, a small village out of time
In the western outskirts of the city there is perhaps the village, today a district, best preserved of Milan: Baggio. Entering it seems to be catapulted into another era. Of great importance is the millenary Cascina Linterno, built around 1154, which owes much of its fame to Petrarca. Baggio is famous for the Milanese saying ‘Va a Bagg a sunà l’orghen’ (go to Baggio to play the organ) which refers to the presence of the “most famous organ in Milan”, painted in the old church of Sant’Apollinare, since the church had not been able to afford one true for lack of funds.
#6 Brera feels like you are in Paris
In Brera the traffic along the perimeter of this district disappears and leaves room for romantic places in the evening and full of charm during the day. Here you can breathe a Parisian atmosphere, with old and elegant houses, clubs and shops that can only be found in the cobbled streets of this beautiful neighborhood.
#7 Villa Invernizzi and its pink South American flamingos
In Porta Venezia, through the gates of Villa Invernizzi, you can see a family of twelve specimens of pink flamingos. Imported here from South America in the 70s by Romeo Invernizzi, owner of the factory of the same name, they live inside the villa cared for by 70 researchers, giving passers-by “a tropical atmosphere.”
#8 On the Navigli as in Copenhagen
The charm of the Navigli is known all over the world. On closer inspection, however, walking in the streets that line the canals and observing the colorful houses that overlook them seems to have been catapulted elsewhere, in Copenhagen or Amsterdam.
#9 The “Dutch house” in via Poerio
The “Dutch” house, at number 35 in via Carlo Poerio, so nicknamed for the architectural lines that recall the houses of the Netherlands. However, this is not the only peculiarity of this house. It is, in fact, one of the twelve examples in the world that reproduce the “770 house” building on the Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn in America. The Milanese one is the only one in Europe, a reference point for the Jewish community.
#10 The Tudor villas, Bavaria in Milan
In the district of via Giambologna, in the south of the city, there are two villas with wooden grated facades and sloping roofs with a style reminiscent of the Middle Ages of northern Europe, that of the fables of Hansel and Gretel. They were built around 1920, apparently by a German couple who decided to recreate the typical Bavarian houses in Milan.
FABIO MARCOMIN
