• Itinerari

Forests and water civilization

from Distretto neorurale Dinamo
Automatically translated
DEPARTURE/ARRIVAL
From: Stazione ferroviaria, Magenta (MI)
To: Stazione ferroviaria, Magenta (MI)
TYPE/PERIOD
Cycling
Spring/Summer/Autumn/Winter
Duration/Length
2h e 30min
27km
CHANGE IN ALTITUDE
Uphill: 0m
DIFFICULTY
FOR ALL
  1. Itineraries
  2. Forests and water civilization

The loop itinerary starts from Magenta, reaches the Naviglio at Pontevecchio along the bike path and from here, descending towards Robecco, leads to the discovery of green and water landscapes surrounded by cultivated fields where cereal-livestock farms of modern inspiration are committed to improving animal and plant biodiversity.

Continuing on, we descend into the valley of the Ticino River to admire the marcite (such as those near Cascina Grande or Cascina Boscreva), a characteristic feature of a certain part of the southwestern Milanese plain, especially in winter when the bright green of the grass stands out in the landscape of the other dry or white fields. Here, the valley is rich in resurgences that feed the irrigation ditches and in turn the mills and wash houses.

Theroute goes into the different woods of the protected natural area of the Lombardy Ticino Valley Park and up the river to the footbridge over the Delizia cable and the "Park Center - La Fagiana," where you can admire the native species of the valley in the educational center and museum.

Continuing through the woods protecting the river , one goes under important road infrastructures such as the MI-TO railway and the A4 highway to go up the valley and reach Bernate Ticino where one can admire an example of the ancient promiscuous cultivation of the plain made by the Park Authority or the bridge over the Naviglio that joins the two historical parts of the town, near the "Canonica."

We then descend along the Naviglio to reach Boffalora sopra Ticino, an important center for navigation (the memory of the "Barchett" of Boffalora, which carried out the postal service until the beginning of the 20th century, is in the tradition) and whose lands belonged to the Carthusians, as testified by the plaque under the passage to the pretty old town.

Still along the towpath that runs alongside the ancient navigable canal, we descend first to Pontenuovo and then to Pontevecchio, where Villa Castiglioni , seat of thePark Authority, stands, from where we can easily return toward the city center of Magenta and its train station.

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Photos in viewer and gallery: Paola Branduini
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Pontevecchio di Magenta: located along the Naviglio Grande takes its name from the bridge built in 1612 to cross it, then rebuilt in 1859 following the clashes between Austrian and Franco-Sardinian militias known as the Battle of Magenta. It is overlooked by the 17th-century Villa Castiglioni, now home to the Parco Lombardo della Valle del Ticino. Started in the late 12th century by the city of Milan, at first for defensive-military reasons, the Naviglio Grande took on decisive importance in the following centuries with regard to the development of Lombardy's agricultural economy, forming the main backbone of the local irrigation system. Image showing northward view from Pontevecchio on the Naviglio Grande.
View of the Naviglio from Pontevecchio Bridge, looking south with one of its branches on the left.
Typical rows of poplar trees lining country roads in the Lombardy lowlands: in this case, it refers to the entrance of Cascina Lema, a grain and livestock farm that is very active in favor of biodiversity.
Grain and legume field in rotation surrounded by groves.
The Naviglio Grande near Robecco.
Photo taken from "I Pep Lung," a cereal-livestock farm whose strength lies in raising multiple varieties of animals with the utmost respect for their well-being. and that also in the fields encourages biodiversity through the bulking technique, rotations, and the creation of hedges and rows around meadows and fields. It participates in numerous organic product networks in the Ticino region.
The Ticino valley rich in resurgences that flow at the foot of the valley escarpment feeds irrigation ditches that irrigate fields and meadows and move mills. The waters of the resurgences, warmer in winter than rainwater or the naviglio, allowed to flow continuously over the rotted meadows allow the grass not to freeze and continue to grow to offer, in early March already the first cut of grass. The marcite, historically the "green gold of Lombardy" for the large production of forage they allowed farmers, can still be admired lushly in the Robecco valley. Pictured are the marcite of cascina Grande: the green meadows are the marcite, submerged from December to February by a continuous trickle of water to keep the grass from freezing. When it snows, they are the only meadows where the snow melts and remain green in the white landscape.
As you approach the river, you enter the woods that protect it and that change as you get closer to the water: woods that vary with oak and hornbeam or prevalence of willow and black alder. Photo shows example of hygrophilous woods at the "La Fagiana" park center.
A path through mesophilous woods within the "La Fagiana" Park Center, an ancient hunting reserve built in 1808 for King Victor Emmanuel II of Savoy, which covered 1574 hectares; bombed in 1944, only part of the residence that houses the Park Center, a museum and an active environmental education center remains today. Many trails branch off through the xerophilous, mesophilous,and hygrophilous forests of the Ticino.
View of the Ticino River near Robecco sul Naviglio.
The Bernate bridge over the Naviglio Grande canal.
The historic center of Boffalora overlooking the Naviglio: the two arches mark the passage of Carthusian monks.

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