Tips & Itineraries

Milano

Quadrilatero del Silenzio

The District of Silence - Via Serbelloni

Just a few steps away from the buzzy fashion district known as Quadrilatero della Moda, there lies an enchanted place called “Quadrilatero del Silenzio” (district of silence), cluttered with works of art, hidden gardens, beautiful villas and liberty style buildings.

Casa Berri-Meregalli in via Cappuccini 8, designed by Giulio Ulisse Arata, is a late art nouveau residential building (1913) with asymmetrical facades boldly decorated.

Casa Sola-Busca in Via Serbelloni 10 is famous for its “bronze ear” doorbell, a work by Adolfo Wildt.

This urban area gained its dignity under the Habsburg Empire, when the Royal Villa and the Public Gardens were built. In the 19th-20th centuries, the area was further enriched with majestic neoclassic, eclectic and liberty palaces like Palazzo Fidia and Villa Necchi Campiglio, which now belongs to Fai – Fondo per l’Ambiente Italiano.

The district of silence still cherishes the historical literary memory of major writers like Giuseppe Parini, Alessandro Manzoni, Cesare Beccaria and Stendhal. A memory that was later renewed by the artists Carlo Carrà and Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, who lived in the neighborhood.

Villa Invernizzi in Via Cappuccini 3 is maybe the most amazing discovery you can make in this place. In its beautiful garden, peacefully live a flock of pink flamingos, whose ancestors reached Italy from Chile and Africa before 1980, when the CITES (Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species) became effective in Italy.

The Villa is not accessible, but owners have kindly trimmed little ovals in the boundary hedge for peeping into this enchanted garden.