Acque milanesi, acque lombarde nel tempo. Contributi per una riflessione su un tema inesauribile

Milan is the only big city in Europe which is both far from the sea and lacking a river. Despite this natural disadvantage, however, already in classical times the Milanese possessed the skill and ingenuity to take advantage of the dominant position of their city between central Europe and the Mediterranean and to link it to the waterways crossing its territory by a network of man-built canals, the "navigli". This sophisticated network produced many consequences in different areas, from navigation to trade and from agricolture to civilization.