Varese City Centre & Piazza Monte Grappa
Varese's compact historic centre rewards slow, aimless walking: the long arcaded porticoes of Corso Matteotti shelter boutiques and cafés from both summer heat and winter rain, and the whole area has a prosperous, unhurried energy that feels distinctly Lombard. The hub of it all is Piazza Monte Grappa, a grand Fascist-era square that is more elegant than oppressive.
Corso Matteotti & the Porticoes
The main shopping street is lined with Liberty-style buildings whose ground floors open into covered walkways — a design that makes window-shopping genuinely pleasurable in any weather. Look up at the ironwork balconies and the coloured tile insets above the shop fronts.
Ducking off Corso Matteotti into the tangle of streets around Via Albuzzi and Via Veratti, you find smaller alimentari, a couple of excellent wine bars and the kind of butcher's shop where the proprietor will explain exactly which valley the salami came from.
Aperitivo Culture
Varese takes its early-evening aperitivo seriously. The bars around Piazza Repubblica and along Corso Matteotti put out generous spreads of finger food from around 18:00, and a Campari Spritz here costs considerably less than in Milan, 50 km to the south.
Bar Zamberletti on Corso Matteotti is an institution — marble countertops, mirrored walls and a pastry case that has looked more or less the same since the 1950s. Order a tramezzino and a macchiato and watch the city go about its business.
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