FREE TIME IN VARESE
The city of Varese offers many and diversified opportunities for free time.
Moments in the nature
- Picnic area and amusement parks: the numerous public parks form the lung of the city and offer moments of relax for adults and children in a context full of mixed types of trees. Many of them are furnished with picnic areas and playgrounds.
- Parco Zanzi locality Schiranna Varese: picnic area with tables; amusement park, cycle track (and roller-skating) placed around the lake Varese. Nearby you can find also a swimming pool and the historical seat of Canottieri Varese (the rowing club of Varese).
- Villa Toeplitz Park, locality Sant’Ambrogio: picnic tables and playground park.
- Mantegazza Park, locality of Masnago: park around the Castle of Masnago and amusement park.
- Villa Augusta Park: small but ideal for spending relax time
- Villa Mirabello Park: amusement park and small train for children
- Via Monte Tre Croci, locality of Santa Maria del Monte: picnic areas placed at the start of the paths for the Campo dei Fiori Mount.
- Paths for bikers and hikers: the surroundings offer many possibilities for walking or riding bikes into the nature.
- Cycle track around the lake Varese: path suited for every age; placed into a wonderful landscape. It starts from the lakeside of Schiranna for 29,5 km. Along the track you can stop and visit some historical and architectonic sites.
- Many paths derive from the village of Santa Maria del Monte and they are placed in the context of the Campo dei Fiori Park. For further information: www.parcocampodeifiori.it.
For information about shows, concerts and movies in Varese, please visit these sites:
ITINERARY 1 (Half day)
Starting point is the central Piazza Monte Grappa, lively urban match point.
On the north side of the square there is Corso Matteotti; it’s a covered walk known as “Salotto della Città” for the presence of exclusive boutiques and cafès. Halfway, on the left side is situated Piazza del Podestà, whereas on the right, through Arco Mera people can reach Piazza San Vittore, see of the homonym Basilica, adjacent in Piazzetta del Battistero, there are the Torre Campanaria and the Battistero di San Giovanni Battista.
Coming back in Corso Matteotti, people can walk until its end, marked by Piazza Carducci and continue in via San Martino, at the end of which there are the homonym church and the courthouse.
Going back to Piazza Carducci, people can take via Albuzzi, the ancient heart of the town and go on in Vicolo Perabò where is possible to admire a beautiful gothic window made of cotto.
Ended the visit of the town centre, people come back in Piazza Monte Grappa and taking first via Marcobi and via Sacco, people reach Palazzo Estense and its enchanting gardens. After a visit at the Archeological Museum of Villa Mirabello, returning towards the town centre people can still visit Chiesa di Sant’Antonio (only in the morning) in Piazza della Motta and Chiesa di San Giuseppe in the homonym square; at the end of the visit people arrive in the modern Piazza della Repubblica, where are situated some of the most important buildings of the town, like as the University, the Theatre and the disused Caserma Garibaldi.
For further information about monuments to visit, download our PDF guides.
ITINERARY 2 (Full day)
Tour of the sacred way and Santa Maria del Monte sopra Varese
The tour starts from Prima Cappella, (accessible by car or by the line C bus). From here, going through a pilgrimage way with 14 chappels represented the Misteries of Rosary, people can reach Santa Maria del Monte sopra Varese.
It is also possible to reach the ancient village with the funicular, that has already celebrated a century of its life.
For more information: AVT Varese.
Il Parco Campo dei Fiori
The trip through Campo dei Fiori and Forte di Orino is a mix between art, nature and history.
The Park is accessible by car or by the line C bus ( from piazzale Pogliaghi, end of the line, there is a shuttle service to Campo dei Fiori).
From Campo dei Fiori people can admire the enchant landscape, the lake, the green hills and the Monte Rosa.
The Campo dei Fiori is well known for the liberty style: Grand Hotel Campo dei Fiori, the “Campo dei Fiori” restaurant and the funicular station “Vellone-Campo dei Fiori”. These buildings, dated back to the first decade of 20th century, were built for touristic needs because Varese became the favorite destination of the middle-class.
At Campo dei Fiori there is also the Astronomic Observatory “G.V. Schiapparelli” with the Botanic Garden (who gives the opportunity to know the nature and the different phenomenon around us.)
Near the parking, different path branch out (some of them can be covered also by mountain bike).
Among them, particularly interesting is the one that brings to Forte di Orino (little military fort built by General Cadorna, during the first world war, as defense of a possible Austro-Hungarian attach from the north), from where you can admire a spectacular landscape of the valleys and lakes of Varese and Canton Ticino, which is some more beautiful in spring thanks to the flowering of different kind of flowers (in particular that of narcissus at the end of April).
For further information, download our PDF guides and visit the website Parco Campo dei Fiori.
ITINERARY 3
Journey to Lake Varese
Locality Schiranna (accessible by car or by the line N bus) offers different opportunities to spend a day: there is a park with a picnic area, a playground, a swimming pool and a cycle track around the lake.
ITINERARY 4: A journey around the villas
An opportunity for whom loves parks and nature, is to visit the old villas, with their gardens, site in the municipal area that have contributed to create “Varese Città Giardino”.
First step: Palazzo Estense (municipal building) and its gardens, Villa Mirabello (archeological museum). Going down through Casbeno people can visit the park of Villa Recalcati, site of the Province and Prefecture.
Second step: Castello di Masnago (site of a museum of modern and contemporary art). Not far from the castle there is Villa Baragiola (now municipal building), where the people can visit only the park.
Third step: Villa Toeplitz and the ethnographic museum (admission only by appointment, tel. 0332/281590)
Fourth step: Villa Mylius, Villa Panza, (FAI property, museum of contemporary art and site of temporary exhibition) and Ville Ponti (meeting centre, property of the Chamber of Commerce, only sometimes the park is open)
Fifth step: Villa Augusta, it is possible to visit only the park.
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 Promotion of the Territory
Via Sacco 5 - 21100 Varese | Tel. (+39) 0332/255432 | Fax (+39) 0332/255336 promozione.territorio@comune.varese.it |
