I flea markets they are undoubtedly among the most fascinating attractions of a city. While in front of a monument it is necessary to strive to retrace within oneself the historical events that made it great, the flea markets still retain that immediacy that suddenly and inevitably transports into the vitality of an ancient and lost atmosphere.
La Fiera di sinigaglia (not Senigallia) takes place every Saturday for more or less 300 years in the picturesque Navigli district near Porta Genova, which from the 9 19 comes alive with the vitality and colors of rows of stalls that seem to sell things at random. Even after so many years, this timeless fair retains a particular charm that travels between the ancient and the eccentric, a happy island in the midst of the endless list of standard shops that crowd the main streets of Milan.
Over the years, the location of the fair has often changed, from the Darsena to the Naviglio up to via Valenza, near the Porta Genova metro stop, where it is still today.
This flea market is the oldest in the city and has its roots in the custom that spread in the early 1800s between Lombardy and Veneto, of the sale of various types of used objects: silverware, military equipment, large and small tools .
Since the 80s, the fair dedicated solely to the sale of used and recycled things has begun to take on a new aspect, which makes it unique in its kind. Next to the stalls of old watches and used objects, punk stalls have gradually sprung up where the boys in the midst of their 'alternative' phase could find bracelets with studs, piercings, cloth bags of a thousand colors, jeans and used military trousers, as well as to used bicycles, or rather, alas, stolen.
Although today the punk imprint has faded compared to the 90s, the Sinigaglia fair remains a place where one goes to find ancient things, ethnic furniture objects as well as unusual clothing and accessories. A tour of these stalls, however, is also a walk in the name of styles and folklores that very often do not find space in the most beaten streets of the city and that preserve that taste of the past that resists modernity and conformity that inevitably takes over in the surroundings.
If you are also interested in discovering the other Milan, the one that comes out of the stereotypes of a city of luxury shopping and chic nightlife, then you just have to spend an 'alternative' Saturday at the Sinigaglia Fair!
