HOTEL UNGHERIA - VARESE CITY CENTER

HOTEL UNGHERIA - VARESE CITY CENTER

8 km - 1 hour - easy

An interesting itinerary along Varese's characteristic main streets

Having exited the Hotel Ungheria, cycling on Viale Borri in the direction of the city center, we are faced with the unmistakable view of the Campo dei Fiori Massif just in front of us, with the hamlet of Santa Maria del Monte and the sixteenth-century Sacred Way, UNESCO heritage site, a view which will accompany us throughout the route.

We reach the town center after a soft descent, passing over the train tracks and the busy (take care!) Via Magenta. In the vicinity of the "Le Corti" Shopping Center, we delve into the heart of Varese city center. Here, elegant buildings flank us on both sides as we cycle towards Piazza Monte Grappa, but turn before reaching it, in Via Bernascone. From here we can enjoy a vantage point over the aforementioned square, being really close without remaining engulfed in city traffic. Piazza Monte Grappa is the heart of Varese's city life: it is a wide, open space, defined by linear, austere lines and contoured by the somber architectures en vogue during the twenty years of Fascist rule.

On our left we find Via Carrobbio, the ancient route to the “Motta”, the local word for the hill over Varese, where a major cattle market was held in Medieval times. Here we take a bit of an uphill slope leading to the Church of Sant'Antonio alla Motta and, just after the church, the entrance to the Public Gardens of Villa Mirabello, a part of the more well-known Giardini Estensi, one of the symbols of Varese.

The road up to the hill of Villa Mirabello is a dirt track, but very well kept. The villa itself is a seventeenth-century residence, now housing the Civic Museums, with important collections related to the prehistory and history of Varese. The view over Lake Varese below, and the Alps just behind it, is quite stunning. Nowadays, there being no official separation between the two, the public gardens flow seamlessly into the grounds of Palazzo Estense.

Just before the hill leading down to the palace (seat of the Varese City Hall) it is worth taking a break to admire the view over the city center and the ancient noble palaces, as well as the green foothills of the Alps, just outside the urban area.
The gardens extend below, their flower beds like a colorful carpet, with the monumental fountain and the sixteenth-century palace once inhabited by the Duke of Modena, Francesco the Third d'Este, who loved Varese and its people to the point of taking up residence, and eventually dying, here.

Leaving the Palazzo Estense we turn right, in the direction of Piazza Monte Grappa, next to which we can access Piazza San Vittore, to visit the Basilica by the same name, full of precious artwork, and the ancient baptistery.
A short, picturesque passage under the Mera Archway gives onto Piazza del Podestà and from here, to the right, we can cycle down Corso Matteotti, admiring the elegant shop-fronts.

Towards the end of the Corso, to the left, it's worth visiting the ancient Cloister of the Convent of Sant'Antonio, an admirable example of fine architecture, and a bit of a secret treasure.
Having retraced our steps, we take Via Carlo Cattaneo, recently gentrified, which has become a regular social haunt for local residents, full as it is of welcoming restaurants and cafés. Next comes Piazza Beccaria, where there really is no alternative but to take a break and pay a well-deserved visit to one of Varese's many famous patisseries.

After our break we leave the town center on VIa Vetera and cycle, with little effort, up one of Varese's best-known and most characteristic hills: Biumo Superiore, where the maze of narrow alleys and private gardens will take us back a couple of centuries. On the highest point of the castellanza, as the villages built around a castle used to be called in Lombardy, we find the Ponti Villas, now housing the Conference Center of the Varese Chamber of Commerce and therefore closed to the general public, and the famous Villa Panza, belonging to the Italian National Trust (FAI) and seat of a major contemporary art museum, a definite must-see.

We are now at the top of a rather narrow, but quite entertaining, downhill stretch (luckily, it is a one-way street).At the bottom, to the left, we will cross the ancient burgh of Biumo Inferiore. Taking the busy Via Carcano we will find ourself in the train station area (it's worth taking a look at the FNM local train station and at the Varese headquarters of the Italian Post). A quick detour in Via Morosini will give us some more insight in the town's professional and public life, before we set off, on Via Piave and Via Magenta, to make our way back to the Ungheria hotel.