Navigli

This guide to the Navigli in Milan opens with Leonardo da Vinci arriving in the city in 1482 and being paid, unusually, in a share of canal water rather than coin. It follows the engineering problem he was hired to solve on this two-century-old canal system, and traces the waterway's earlier life as a defensive moat and its long working history hauling salt, marble and grain into the city. Stand by the Darsena, the old port, and look out over the last two canals still open in Milan.