The best family-friendly hikes and walks in Parco Nord Milano

Parco Nord Milano extends for about 600 hectares between the districts of the northern periphery of Milan. Its conception dates back to the late 1960s, but it was only in 1975 that it was recognized by the Lombardy Region as a regional park. Its management is entrusted to a Consortium composed of the six Municipalities around the Park and the Province of Milan. The park is located in one of the most densely urbanized contexts in Europe, characterized by the presence of historic factories (now almost entirely disappeared as a result of de-industrialization) and large housing estates that, over time, have joined the northern periphery of Milan to its hinterland without any urban planning design. Parco Nord Milano currently boasts about 350 hectares of green areas, organized into wooded areas, clearings, rows of trees, shrub patches, hedges, and small bodies of water. Today, the park continues to expand and grow with the working methodology used over all these years, aware of its social, urban, and ecological role. The new reforestation lots, with small saplings of a few tens of centimeters protected by stakes, are the symbol of the growing park, of the investment in the future. But it is the management and maintenance of the green areas that best express the working methodology used: new problems have been met with new, technologically advanced solutions, in order to maintain that standard of quality of the green areas, that care and maintenance, which citizens have become accustomed to seeing, and which make Parco Nord Milano a concrete example of sustainable development for the entire city, similar to what happens in other major European cities. A place of quality, therefore, where technology, creativity, passion, and professional seriousness meet to satisfy the expectations of visitors and respond to the deep needs of the city.

A fountain that produces a kind of mist, very wet. A refreshment for the mind

The northernmost part of Lake Niguarda is located within Parco Nord Milano, precisely towards the Bosco di Bruzzano and the border with the Municipality of Bresso. In this area, the bank becomes denser, hosts natural wetlands, and is close to the intake of the Villoresi Canal, which feeds the body of water.

Parco Nord Milano is a large regional protected area that extends for about 790 hectares in the northern suburbs of the metropolitan city, representing one of the main green lungs of Europe in an urban setting. Born in the 70s as an environmental redevelopment project of old industrial areas, formerly Breda, and degraded agricultural lands, today the park touches as many as seven municipalities in the Milanese suburbs. It is a very rich ecosystem made up of large meadows, artificial wooded areas, canals, and bodies of water, ideal for sports, walks, and outdoor relaxation.

The Bosco di Bruzzano has a cycle path and is an ideal destination for picnics, with its green clearings alternating with groves of oaks, ash trees, poplars, and birches. In the park, which formed the first nucleus of Parco Nord, you can also admire two Himalayan cedars, and from there you can reach the nearby Cascina Anna, an imposing noble residence from the early twentieth century, now home to the library of the same name, which has a section dedicated to environmental sustainability and ecology.

A green oasis between Milan, Sesto San Giovanni and Cinisello Balsamo, the North park is a treasure of artistic, floral and architectural heritage. It extends for over 632 hectares on part of the areas that housed the Breda plants.

The creation of an articulated and complex water system, with ponds, lakes, fountains and canals, began in 1992 with the construction of the Laghetti Suzzani and continues today thanks to the construction of the two large lakes in the eastern sector of the Park, in Niguarda and Bruzzano. Excavations for the construction of the artificial Suzzani lake inside the Parco Nord Water is a fundamental element for biodiversity and the landscape, and its presence significantly increases the species present: aquatic plants, insects, amphibians, fish, reptiles. The greatest impact is noted on the increase in birdlife: not only have water hens, mallards and coots spontaneously settled and nest permanently, but sometimes you can come across rarer species that prefer humid environments such as the grey heron and the kingfisher.

Maybe it's Women's Day, maybe it's the first day of Almost Spring, but today even on bikes we're going at a walking pace.