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Milan Navigli: Food Tour & Aperitivo with Wine Tastings

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Duration3h 30m

GroupUp to 12

LanguagesEN

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Walking the Navigli: Six tastings from aperitivo to gelato along Milan's canals

You walk the Navigli with a local English-speaking guide, stopping at six food spots and three drink pours — pizza fritta and Campari Soda, polenta with Gorgonzola, focaccia di Recco, risotto alla Milanese with wine, and artisanal gelato. The tour includes insider tips on the neighborhood and takes about two hours. Groups stay small, minimum two guests.

3h 30m

Step-by-step itinerary

Visit Sciuè Navigli for pizza fritta and Campari Soda
See authentic Milanese housing with shared balconies
Walk historic alley with original stone washboards
Explore Milan’s historic canal district
Enjoy polenta with Gorgonzola and charcuterie
Taste Ligurian farinata and focaccia di Recco
Eat risotto alla Milanese with ossobuco or venison ragu
End with artisanal gelato tasting

The Experience

You step off the street into Sciuè Navigli and the rhythm shifts — pizza fritta arrives with a Campari Soda, and you're already inside the aperitivo hour the way locals live it. The Navigli food tour moves through the district in a loose line, stopping where the guide knows the owners, tasting as you go. There's focaccia di Recco from a Ligurian specialist that's been here since 1994, its creamy cheese still warm from the copper pan. Polenta with Gorgonzola and charcuterie sourced from a butcher on the Naviglio Grande. Risotto alla Milanese with saffron, the kind that takes patience to get right. It's not a lecture on food history — it's six tastings and three glasses of wine strung across two hours, the kind of evening a Milanese person would actually have, just compressed and guided.

Between stops, the tour doubles back into the quieter corners. You'll see the inner courtyards of old working-class housing, now studios and galleries, their shared balconies still overlooking the same stone. There's a historic alley where washerwomen used to work the canal — the original stone washboards are still there, the water still flowing. The guide points these things out without ceremony, the way someone who knows the neighborhood would. It's the texture of how the Navigli actually sits, not a postcard version of it.

The last stop is gelato made by a husband-and-wife team who've been doing it for over 15 years. They use milk instead of cream, natural ingredients, the silky velvety thing that tastes like what gelato is supposed to taste like. By then you've moved through the district enough times that the streets feel less foreign — you know where the water is, where the restaurants are, which corners get loud and which ones stay quiet.

What’s included

Your tour includes a local English-speaking guide, six food tastings across the Navigli district, three drinks (Campari Soda, wine pours), insider tips on the neighborhood, and access to the historic corners and courtyards that shape the district. Dietary accommodations for vegetarians, gluten-free guests, and other needs can be arranged with advance notice at booking.

Good to know

Easy physical levelStroller friendlyPets welcomePublic transport nearby

Operated by Eating Europe Food Tours Rome

Is this one for you?Book this if you want to taste the Navigli the way locals do — moving through the district at a human pace, stopping where the guide knows the food, without arranging transport or timing yourself across six different spots.