Milan Brera and Navigli Walking Tour: A Self-Guided Route Through the Artsy Quarters

Beyond the marble grandeur of Milan's center lies a softer, more bohemian city of cobbled art quarters, ancient basilicas and old canals lined with bars, and this walk seeks it out. If you are looking for a walking tour in Italy that trades monuments for atmosphere, this Milan self guided walking tour wanders the artistic Brera district, visits some of the city's oldest and most beautiful churches, and descends to the Navigli, the surviving canals where Milan comes alive at dusk. It is a walk of narrow lanes, hidden art and waterside charm, showing a warmer and more relaxed side of this brisk northern city.

Before you set off, a few practical notes. This walk covers about five kilometers and takes around two to two and a half hours of easy strolling, flat throughout and paved in cobbles and stone. Wear comfortable shoes for the uneven surfaces. The ideal time to start is the late afternoon, so that you arrive at the canals for the famous aperitivo hour, when the waterside bars fill and the light turns golden on the water. If you are following along by audio, keep your eyes up for the art and the architecture, watch for cyclists and trams, and pause whenever a gallery window, a church door or a canal view invites you to slow down.

Brera District

You begin in the Brera District, the artistic and bohemian heart of Milan, a small grid of cobbled streets that feels more like a Parisian quarter than a brisk business city. As you wander in, the lanes are lined with art galleries, antique shops, tiny boutiques and cozy trattorias, their tables spilling onto the cobbles under ivy and lanterns. This has long been the haunt of painters and students, drawn by the famous art academy at its center, and the neighborhood keeps a creative, slightly romantic air. Fortune tellers and portrait artists sometimes set up along the busier corners. Stroll the narrow streets slowly, peering into gallery windows and soaking up the mood. At the heart of the quarter stands a grand old palace that houses both the academy and one of Italy's great art collections, and its courtyard is your next stop.

Pinacoteca di Brera

The Pinacoteca di Brera is one of the finest art galleries in Italy, housed in a grand baroque palace whose very courtyard is worth the visit, even before you consider the masterpieces within. Step into the large arcaded courtyard, ringed by elegant columns on two levels, and find at its center a striking bronze statue of Napoleon posed as a heroic nude god, a bold and slightly startling monument. Around you, art students hurry between classes, sketchbooks under their arms, for the academy still shares the building. The gallery upstairs holds some of the greatest paintings of the Italian Renaissance, but the courtyard alone captures the spirit of Brera, art and learning wrapped in grand old stone. Take in the arcades and the bronze figure. Then leave the quarter heading southwest, walking several blocks toward a modest brick church that guards one of the most famous images in the world.

Santa Maria delle Grazie

Santa Maria delle Grazie is a lovely Renaissance church of warm brick and pale stone, crowned by a graceful domed apse, but its fame rests on a single painting hidden in the old refectory beside it, Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper. Stand in the quiet square before the church and admire its harmonious brickwork and the elegant dome, designed in part by a great Renaissance architect. The famous mural, painted on the wall of the monks' dining hall, is so fragile and so treasured that only a few visitors are admitted at a time, but simply standing beside the building that shelters one of humanity's greatest artworks is a quiet thrill. The church itself is serene and beautiful. Take in its calm and its history. Then head south toward one of the oldest and most sacred churches in all of Milan, its ancient towers rising ahead.