Varese and the Lakes of the Varesotto - Lake Maggiore & Lake Orta Travel Guide

Varese is a lively industrial city of around 84,000 inhabitants at the southern edge of the Alps. It lies about 20 km east of Laveno on Lake Maggiore, about 12 km south of Porto Ceresio at the Italian southern end of Lake Lugano, and about 55 km north of Milan.

As early as the Middle Ages, Varese grew considerably prosperous as a trading centre at the crossroads of the north-south trade route (Gotthard Pass - Milan) and the west-east route (Lake Maggiore - Lake Como). The Basilica of San Vittore in the heart of the city was built by Pellegrino Tibaldi under the rule of the Borromeo family (1580-1615). Inside, the works of Giovanni Battista Crespi are well worth seeing. The neighbouring baptistery is older still, built between 1180 and 1230 during the transition from Romanesque to Gothic. Near the cathedral lies the city's promenade, Corso Matteotti.

The colossal Fascist-era architecture of 1927-1935 on Piazza Monte Grappa cost the city much of its old character. A little further on stands the Church of San Antonio, with notable illustrative painting by Giuseppe Beroffio (1756). In the nearby 18th-century Villa Mirabello, set in a large English-style park, the Civic Museums house prehistoric finds from the pile-dwelling cultures of the Varesotto lakes.

The park of Villa Mirabello merges into the park of the Palazzo Estense. The Palazzo Estense, built in 1766-1771, was modelled on the Habsburg palace of Schönbrunn in Vienna and is surrounded by beautiful gardens and parkland. Little of its original interior survives, and today it serves as the seat of Varese's city administration. Varese is also easily reached by train; the city's two railway stations lie a little east of the old town.

Above Varese lies the Sacro Monte, the largest and most monumental Way of the Cross in northern Italy, which has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2003. The processional road is 2 km long and climbs 280 m to the summit. The individual stations are designed as chapels the size of churches, whose large interiors are decorated with paintings, sculptures and life-size terracotta groups. The 14 chapels in all were designed by Giuseppe Bernasconi, with building starting in 1604. The chapels cannot be entered; their interiors can only be viewed through glass windows. The 15th chapel of the Way of the Cross is the Church of the Incoronazione della Vergine (Coronation of the Virgin), the starting point from which the Sacro Monte developed. This church has Romanesque roots but was Gothicised and Baroquised over the course of history, gaining a Renaissance choir and, in the 17th century, a campanile. The founders of this hermitage, the Blessed Caterina and Giuliana, are buried here.

The southern part of the province of Varese with its lakes is known as the Varesotto. The largest lake is Lake Varese (about 15 sq km), followed by Lake Monate, Lake Comabbio and a few smaller lakes. While Lake Maggiore, Lake Lugano (Ceresio) and Lake Orta are glacial lakes of considerable depth (Lake Maggiore up to 372 m), the lakes of the Varesotto are so-called terminal moraine lakes only about 20-25 m deep, which also lack inflows from the Alps. In this lake landscape, where numerous other lakes have dried up or turned to marsh over time, an interesting pile-dwelling culture arose in Celtic times. This history is documented in the museum (Villa Ponti) on the small island in Lake Varese (Isolino Virginia). There are also a few campsites and bathing beaches on this lake.

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