Provincia di Milano

A cycling/walking tour from Piazzale Lotto to Monte Grappa

Portraits and sayings on the façades of our houses

During the Renaissance, the facades were often decorated with mottos and medallions with famous people, which was customary from the end of the Nineteenth century in copies of such buildings, during the Lombard or Tuscan Renaissance or also the Gothic to Late Medieval period.

Notes

This itinerary is an extract from "Evviva Milano in bici" by Anna Pavan. The book presents 22 itineraies in order to observe the city from a new ponit of view. Anna Pavan has been a member of the Fiab Ciclobby board of directors for several years, and a guide for Ciclobby art tours for around 15 years. The book is provided with around 100 photographs by Guia Biscaro, an architect, who is also a Fiab Ciclobby board member.

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Leave the traffic behind in Piazzale Lotto and we immediately encounter something extremely interesting on Via Masaccio 20: the remains of the fifteenth-century Church of San Siro alla Vepra incorporated into a Neo-Renaissance villa with a beautiful garden.
> Chiesa di S. Siro alla Vepra
Ritornati in via Monte Bianco, si procede dritto fino all'altezza di viale Berengario n. 10, dove si può ammirare la bella villa-castello.
> Villa-castello
Going back to Piazza Amendola, walk towards Viale Monte Rosa and you can stop and admire the sundial, at. no. 49, that appears on a small, brick building, with a corner loggia and mullioned window in similar style and equally elegant in detail.
> Meridiana
On leaving the house with the sundial, quickly pass through Viale Monte Rosa, crossing back through Piazza Amendola and turn left onto Via Domenichino where you arrive to Via Mosé Bianchi and where you will encounter a house with a heavy wooden cornice.
> Casa di via Mosè Bianchi
Continuing along Via Mosè Bianchi, take a left for Via Correggio, walk down along Viale Monte Rosa again to reach the Giuseppe Verdi nursing home in Via Buonarrotti.
> Rest home for musicicians "Giuseppe Verdi" - Tomb of Giuseppe Verdi and Giuseppina Strepponi
A short distance away, in the "Fiorentina" house in Via Buonarroti no. 20 (wonderful building from around the same era as Casa Verdi), there is another affectionate homage to the Maestro: a reproduction graffito of one of his most famous portraits and, to the side, a portrait of Michelangelo to whom the street is dedicated. Both are inserted in an illusionistic wooden frame, like paintings hanging in a lounge. Continuing straight ahead and passing beyond Piazza Piemonte, you reach Via Washington which hosts another scholarly, Latin inscription which, in classic Roman characters, runs along the stringcourse between the noble coats of arms and warn of using money in a clever way: Pecunia, si uti scis, ancilla; si nescis, domina ("if you know how to use it, money is your servant, otherwise it's your tyranny"). Having taken Via Pirandello, cross Via Elba on foot and take a left on the cycling piste on Via Cimarosa. Walk down Via Cherubini, then Via Rasori and on the corner with Via Scarpa you can admire the biggest and perhaps the most beautiful sundial in Milan which is decorated on the side facade of a beautiful, little building with a garden. Don't miss the crown with the twelve signs of the zodiac and the motto, in this case a tangle of words, yet again in Latin "Nihil cum umbra, sine umbra nihil" ("Nothing with a shadow and nothing without a shadow") Having taken Via Scaprpa and Via Guido d'Arezzo, turn right onto Via Mario Pagano where you arrive to the elegant Via Telesio, with a wonderful, Neo-Renaissance villa at no. 13.
> Villa neorinascimentale di via Telesio 13
Immediately after Via Telesio, turn right and turn onto Via Ludovico Ariosto, the location of Villa Sessa. Here the same idea is expressed in a more stone form with a beautiful Liberty scroll with carvings above the door of Via Mascheroni no. 14, which is after Piazza Tommaseo: "Ars et labor - Anno Domini 1904". Six maidens above approving and smiling.
> Villa Sessa
From Villa Sessa, turn left onto Via Giovanni Rasori to reach the round-about in Piazza della Conciliazione. Take the 3rd exit towards Via XX Settembre and take the street opposite this street. Then turn right on Via Giuseppe Sommaruga, where you arrive in front of a beautiful Neo-Renaissance villa.
> Villa Neorinascimento di via Sommaruga n. 2
Proceed towards Via Giuseppe Rovani, taking Via Mascheroni and continue onwards towards Piazza Giovane Italia. Turn right onto Via Boccaccio. On the round-about with Piazza Virgilio exit onto Via Giovanni Boccaccio and continue straight ahead until you come to Piazzale Luigi Cadorna. From here turn right onto Foro Buonaparte, where you arrive to Via Puccini no. 3. Here, you will find Palazzo dal Verme, the next stop on the itinerary.
> Palazzo dal Verme
Take Via Foro Buonaparte again, turn right onto Via Cusani and then go right again onto Via Rovello, the location of Palazzo Carmagnola.
> Carmagnola Palace
Leave Palazzo Carmagnola and turn right onto Via San Tommaso, then take a left onto Via Broletto and proceed straight ahead for Via Ponte Vetero. Having taken a right on Via Mercato you arrive to Corso Giuseppe Garibaldi where you will see the oldest of the writing seen up to now: "Laus Deo". The curvy lines of the little balconies and the solid architectural proportions tell us that this building dates back to the eighteenth century. It was perhaps a monastery. The same invitation to raise your chin to God is found on the entrance lintel of the convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie. Now we'll proceed to the last stop on our itinerary: take Via Marsala, then take Via San Marco and, on the right, you will see the Bastioni di Porta Nuova. Continue to Piazzale Principessa Clotilde until you come to Viale Monte Grappa no. 8 where the path ends with the modern writing, an example of a motto on a present day building, perhaps the only motto of its kind in the entire city, which states: "listen to your heart, city", in rather cryptic writing. It pays homage to the author Alberto Savinio and one of his most wonderful books bearing the same title.

VisitaMilano

Una grande Provincia, tanti luoghi da vivere

Navigazione di primo livello

Navigazione di livello 1

Portraits and sayings on the façades of our houses

Notes

Map

Planning your trip

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