Along the banks of Lake Maggiore and Milan, the capital of new artistic and culinary trends

Discover the historical and cultural treasures of northern Verbano.
Back in the 1700s the area around Varese was already one of locations favoured by the Lombard nobility and middle classes thanks to its proximity to Milan and the famous Lake Maggiore, surrounded by charming English style gardens, aristocratic Renaissance buildings and landscapes of a rare beauty.
Setting off from Azzate, heading for Varese, it is worthwhile to make a small detour to Castiglione Olona, an old medieval town known as the “Lombardy’s Tuscan island” thanks to its art treasures and buildings which make it a unique location in the itineraries of this area. A labyrinth of narrow streets and alleyways that, every first Sunday of the month, is the setting for the traditional “Fiera del Cardinale”, an antiques and second-hand market set up in ’78 with the aim of bringing some of the town’s fourteenth century atmosphere back into the historical centre. The market features over one hundred stall holders including second hand dealers, craftspeople and antiques dealers along with stands where you can buy lace, antique jewellery, period costume jewellery and strike some excellent bargains. All of this in surroundings with the atmosphere of “days gone by” evoked by the town’s Renaissance architecture – the 15th century Palazzo Branda Castiglioni, the cardinal’s former residence and Palazzo del Municipio, the former home of the School of Grammar and Singing set up by the Cardinal in 1483.

Next stop on route is Varese, the art experts’ city, with a huge artistic and cultural heritage linked above all to the religious sphere. An example of this is the sanctuary of Santa Maria del Monte, whose lavish fifteenth century interior houses some items of a rare beauty such as the image of the Virgin Mary, crypt frescoes and the 14 chapels of the Stations of the Cross dating from the 1300s to the 1600s.
The neoclassical Basilica of San Vittore with its Baroque bell-tower, designed by Pellegrini and built around 1580 and the Gothic Roman Baptistry with a baptismal font from the 1200s.
Varese’s architecture is also quite magnificent with Palazzo Estense (Via Sacco), seat of the Town Council, the Municipal Library built at the request of Francesco III d’Este and the latter’s noble residence – a gem of the Renaissance, surrounded by a splendid Italian garden, which Stendhal described as “the Versailles of Milan”. But Varese is also famous for its impressive Art Nouveau villas, starting with Villa Mirabello, home to the Municipal Museums and the Music High School, Villa Recalcati used to house the Province’s offices and Villa Panza, located on Biumo Superiore, which pays host to famous Fai Museum, re-christened “the Varesotto Guggenheim”, with its extremely valuable collection of state-of-the-art environmental art (Visits - Tuesday-Sunday 10am-6pm, closed on Monday, Tel. 0332 239669). The museum also boasts Giuseppe Panza’s valuable American art collection of minimal and pop art. You can reach the east side of Lake Maggiore from Varese in under an hour by following the signs for Laveno, travelling along one of the lake’s most enchanting stretches. Along this stretch of the lake you can visit Sesto Calende, with its Municipal Archaeological Museum (inside the Town Hall, Tel. 0331 922489; Visits - September-June: Monday-Thursday 8.30am-12noon and 2pm-4.30pm, Saturday and Sunday 3pm-6pm; July and August: Monday-Wednesday-Friday 9am-12.30am, Tuesday and Thursday 9am-12noon and 2.30pm-4.30pm, Sunday 4pm-7pm) containing ancient archaeological finds from the area, the Rocca di Angera (Visits - March-September: 9.30am-6pm; October: 9.30am-5pm) with interesting frescoes from Palazzo Borromeo in Milan, the sanctuary of Santa Caterina sul Sasso (Cerro, 3 km from Laveno going southwards along the lakeside) characterised by its position overlooking the water, and Cerro where there is a rare collection of Laveno pottery housed in Palazzo Perabò (Visits - Tuesday-Thursday 2.30pm-5.30pm, Friday-Sunday 10am-12noon and 2.30pm –5.30pm; July and August: Tuesday-Thursday 3.30pm-6.30pm, Friday-Sunday 10am-12noon and 3.30pm-6.30pm).

Watch out for the signpost at the side of the road indicating Brebbia. This short detour is well worth it since this small fourteenth century town is home to one of the most original museums in all Italy. In other words a small but varied Pipe Museum (Tel. 0332 770286). What is the reason behind this museum? Brebbia is famous throughout Europe and overseas for its Brebbia Pipes which have been cut and made in this town for centuries. And so Enea Buzzi, a local resident and pipe collector, decided to exhibit his collection of over 10,000 pipes of all shapes and sizes, from the surrounding areas and also from abroad.

Laveno is also a point of embarkation. There is a frequent ferry service so you can leave your car in the car park near the port and enjoy a romantic trip across the waters of Lake Maggiore to Verbania on the opposite shore. This delightful town is in fact formed of two very old municipalities: Pallanza on the west overlooking the Borromeo gulf towards Punta Castagnola, one of Arturo Toscanini’s favourite places which still today boasts a medieval atmosphere, and Intra to the east, neo-classical and Baroque in style. Do not miss the 17th century Palazzo Dugnani (Via Cavour 40 – Visits - April-October 10am-12noon and 3.30pm-6.30pm, closed on Monday and from November to March) which is home to Verbano’s Landscape Museum and artistic Historical Museum which boasts some rare canvases dating from the 16th century through to the 20th century.
Villa Taranto (Visits - April-October: 8.30am-7.30pm, closed from November to March) located along the lakeside heading in the direction of Punta Castagnola. Inside there are some magnificent botanical gardens created by the Scottish Capt Neil McEacharn who bought the property in 1931 and adorned the surrounding park with countless exotic plants, statues and fountains. However one of the major attractions is still the Isole Borromee archipelago, a group of three small islands - Isola Bella, Isola dei Pescatori and Isola Madre - which can be reached by ferry from Verbania.
The magnificent, Baroque Palazzo Borromeo (Visits 9am-12noon and 1.30pm-5.30pm) occupies almost all of Isola Bella. Ballrooms, wide staircases, rare paintings by Tiepolo, Giordano and Carracci and underground chambers makes this building the jewel of Lake Maggiore’s crown. Isola dei Pescatori is home to a picturesque village while another Palazzo Borromeo, this time dating from the 1700s and famous for its botanical garden can be found on Isola Madre, the largest of the three.
The lakeside is packed with restaurants surrounded by luxuriant, blooming gardens where you can sample typical dishes like risotto with perch or eels fished from the lake, “bruscitt” – beef cooked in fennel seeds and red wine or guinea fowl baked in a clay mould. Deserts include “i brutti e i buoni” – biscuits served with a glass of Amaretto liqueur.
We recommend Il Monastero (Suna) Via Castelfidardo 5/7 Tel. 0323502544 and Il Torchio, Via Manzoni 20 tel. 0323503352 – both in Pallanza.