Varese Hotels

Varese is a city in north-western Lombardy, northern Italy, 55 km north of Milan. It is the capital of the Province of Varese. The hinterland or urban part of the city is called Varesotto. The town owes its origin to the strategic position that it held in past centuries: the two transapennine roads, toward Parma and Tortona, across the Pass of Cento Croci and Bocco, intersected here. The roads from the coast went through Varese territory and entered the Po Valley, so that a trading market developed in this territory. A Byzantine settlement, the ruins of which were found under the castle, existed in the Varese area of today. The presence of the Lavagna Counts in Varese territory dates from the beginning of the 11th century, and in 1161 Emperor Federico I invested the family with the title. At the end of the 12th century, two branches of Lavagna Counts - the Fieschi and Pinelli families - settled in Cassego from where they began to disforest, to build wooden constructions, to seed and breed livestock. The conflicts between the two families began immediately when the Fieschi family threw the Pinelli family out of Cassego and forced them to seek refuge in Carbello where they built a tower called “Pinelli Tower”. Later the two families agreed to divide up the territory. However, as the Fieschi family came to power in the Upper Val di Vara in the end of 13th century, they consolidated their presence by founding a village that became the center of regional life, and drew up a settlement plan that provided for identical brick houses. The Fieschi family continued the feud until 1386, when Antoniotto Adorno, the Genoese Doge, bought Varese from Count Carlo. In 1472 Varese was ruled by the Laudi family, feudatories of the Upper Val di Taro, until 1547 when, as result of a failed conspiracy of a nephew, GianLuigi, against Andrea Doria, the family power waned, and its dominions were expropriated to the Genoa Republic. In 1859, Giuseppe Garibaldi confronted Austrian forces led by Field Marshal-Lieutenant Carl Baron Urban near Varese. Also, it was here were Alessandro Marchetti's Savoia-Marchetti SM.93 made his first test flights.