The Naviglio Grande

 

Guided tour of three hours to one of the most characteristic quarters in Milan between past and present.


Collecting in the 19th century: Poldi-Pezzoli and Bagatti -Valsecchi Museums

 

Here are two prestigious and aristocratic palaces of the 19th century that have preserved their structures, original furniture and priceless collections. It’s a return to the past in order to appreciate the taste and the spirit of collecting in the 19th century.

 

Gian Giacomo Poldi Pezzoli and his collection

A guided visit of two hours to the Poldi Pezzoli Museum.


Here is a pleasant tour to discover old Milan. We will pass through the Naviglio Grande with its characteristic alleys, the courtyards of  the houses ‘ di ringhiera’, the Darsena and the little known Conca di Viarenna where at the end of the 14th century the marbles for the Cathedral , under construction, arrived.

We will visit San Lorenzo’s Columns, the majestic San Lorenzo’s Basilica, that reminds the spirituality of the Christianism, and St. Aquilino’s Chapel with its precious and early Christian mosaics.

On the notes and the records of music

Guided tour of three hours to the Museo Teatrale alla Scala and to Casa Verdi.

 

 

 

Gian Giacomo Poldi Pezzoli’s passion for collecting came from his family. His mother Rosa Trivulzio passed on her love for art, her thirst for culture, her pleasure to furnish their palace to her son. The house, a building of the 17th century, was in Via del Giardino (now via Manzoni). The garden with statues and fountains was so beautiful it gave the name to the street.

It’s a wonderful house/museum that keeps its valuable collections but unfortunately, only a part of its furniture because the house was bombed in August 1943.

In its rooms you can see wonderful paintings of the Lombard Renaissance (Foppa, Zenale, Luini and the Leonardesque Painters ), of the Venetian School (Giovanni Bellini, Mantegna, Tiepolo, Guardi  and Canaletto) and of some masters such as Botticelli and Pollaiolo whose ‘Ritratto di Dama’ is the symbol of the museum.

The Poldi Pezzoli collection is an example of selected and valuable private collection.

 

 

The dream of Fausto and Giuseppe
Bagatti -Valsecchi

 

Guided tour of two hours to Bagatti Valsecchi Museum.

 


The closing for restoration of La Scala has obliged to move the collections of the Museo Teatrale to another place: Busca Palace. Now, this ancient palace of Corso Magenta is housing the Museum  in its rooms frescoed in the 18th century. The Museum has temporarily lost its special relationship with the most famous opera-house but , now, has a new aspect to discover.

Beside the historical pieces of the Museo Teatrale, now, there are also new collections such as the one of the musical instruments and gramophones and the one of Maria Callas’s theatrical costumes.

At the same time, we will visit this little known palace with its classic decorations and frescoes.

Then we will visit the nearby Rest Home for Musicians G. Verdi. Here, everlasting notes and singing echo next to the Maestro’s grave. That house is a rediscovery, not only for lovers, but for all the ones that wish to know everything about Milan and its protagonists.

 

 

Milan and the palaces of the Power and the Finance

Guided tour of two hours to discover the past and the present history of Milan as the capital of economy and finance through its palaces.

 



In November 1994 at the opening to the public of the palace of Via del Gesù, the slogan was ’pleasant like a house, interesting like a museum, intriguing like an adventure’.

Here, in the eighties of the 19th century the Bagatti Valsecchi Brothers realized their dream

The visit to their house/museum amazes and surprises...

Here , you can go to a furnished room to another one, freely, with no restrictions as it generally happens in a museum. Actually , it’s not a museum , a ‘wunderkammern’, but a residence where the owners’ love for collecting is softened by everyday life. The usual objects and furniture are rigorously of the Renaissance or of Renaissance style. They both loved the Renaissance. They personally looked for every piece of that period and they personally drew and planned the furniture of their residence: tapestries, jambs, fireplaces and chests.

They loved Renaissance but they wanted to enjoy the comforts of the modern times, so they had running water, central heating, phone hidden in a leonine head, electric light, comfortable sofas etc. In the past visitors admired this ‘nest’ and were surprised and it happens at present ,too.

 












 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

Among Piazza Cordusio, Via Meravigli and the Castello Sforzesco, you can see a lot of palaces that represented in the past and, sometimes represent even today, the seats of the political and economical power of Milan. They are buildings of different styles but they represent the emergent social classes or the ones in power; from the old Princes to the great aristocratic families, from the lively middle class of the 19th century to the present holdings that, now, have their seats in the historical palaces.

It’s a charming route to the Broletto ( 13th century), the Palace of Giureconsulti (16th century) , the Cors Ducis ( Cordusio) with the Palace of Generali Insurances (1897/1901), the Palace of the Post (1901), the seat of the Magazzini Contratti (1901/1903), the seat of the Chamber of Commerce (1880/1952) ,the palace of the cotton manufacturer Francesco Turati (1876) and, at last, to Piazza degli Affari with the austere Palace of the Stock Exchange.

 

Clerici Palace and G. Tiepolo


Guided tour to Clerici Palace.

We can’t ignore a masterpiece of the 18th century that is known by few people; Clerici Palace and the great fresco painted by G. Tiepolo.

Giovan Battista Tiepolo, a famous Venetian painter , painted for important aristocratic families such as the Archintos (frescoes destroyed by bombs in 1943), the Casatis-Dugnanis and the Clericis; in this last palace he reached his apotheosis.

Tiepolo created an image of great theatricality and emotive participation in a series of mytologic figures on a sky with white and pink clouds that cast our minds outside. The Chariot of the Sun and the Gods of Olympus light up the four parts of the world in a joyful and jocose atmosphere with dancing puttoes and exotic oddities.

 

 

 

 

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