Home to the Monte Barro Natural Park, Galbiate is the capital of the Eastern Lario Mountain Community – Valle San Martino. The town is on the saddle, connecting Monte di Brianza with Monte Barro.

You could start your trip to Galbiate from the Figina area to admire the Church of San Nicolao and San Sigismondo, dating back to the 12th century. A splendid example of Burgundian Romanesque architecture, the interior features elements of neoclassical taste, with an ogival portal and mullioned window in the Gothic style façade.

Leaving the church behind you, walk along the road in front of you, continuing straight until the intersection with the SP 58. Turn left to take the provincial road and then right onto via Amman. Following the road, you will come out via Diaz, at the end of which you will have to turn left via Vittorio Emanuele to reach Piazza della Chiesa and discover the Church of Saints Peter and Paul, the parish church of Vergano. Inside, you will find, among other things, a canvas with the martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew.

After coming down from the churchyard, retrace Via Vittorio Emanuele and continue straight, then cross the SP 58  onto Via De Gasperi. Then, turn right onto via Manzoni to reach Piazza Cardinal Ferrari, where is the Church of Saint Roch.

It was initially the noble chapel of the so-called Vergano castle, the palace still visible today against which the church is attached on the southeast side. Rebuilt in the 1920s after the damage caused by heavy snow in 1915, it is characterized by a single-hall interior.

Returning to the beginning of via De Gasperi, turn right to take the SP 58. Going straight, you will join the SP 70, and you will soon find yourself in the town of Bartesate, where you will turn left via Cappelletta: after a few steps, you will see, in Piazza Don Zucca, the Church of Saints Macario and Genesio. Almost imprisoned between the houses in the center of the village, the church has a gabled façade and houses inside a chapel dedicated to the Madonna and another dedicated to the Sacred Heart.

Returning to the beginning via Cappelletta, turn left onto the SP 70 and then go right onto via Mozzana: following it to the end, you can reach the Church of Saints Roch and Blaise.

Do you know that this little church is one of the many film locations in Brianza? It appeared in 1941 in one of the first scenes of the film The Betrothed by Mario Camerini. The protagonist of the film was Gino Cervi.

After passing the church in via Mozzana 5, you can observe the ancient Palazzo Resinelli. After leaving Mozzana and returning to the provincial road, take a small dirt road leading to a group of old houses after the first bend to the left.

Here stands Cascina Manzoni, whose name comes from Alessandro Manzoni, who was left here by his mother immediately after being born:, his nurse, Caterina Panzeri, lived in Mozzana. Unfortunately, the farmhouse, also known as Cascina Costa, is in a state of abandonment but still represents a precious historical and cultural testimony.

Now resume your walk on the SP 70 and always go straight; after passing the roundabout, take via IV November. Once you reach the intersection via Lecco and via Cantù, don’t miss the opportunity to admire on your right, via Cantù 4, the splendid building of the Giovanna and Giuseppe Bertarelli nursery school, inaugurated in 1909.

Continue along Via Cantù and, after passing Via Carribbio, you will see on your right the Church of Santa Maria Bambina, also known as the Church of Carribbio.

From here, continue walking St Alexander street  to the Church of Saint Alexander. From here, you can take the road to the hamlet of San Michele, which leads you to the Sanctuary of Saint Michael, a never completed church whose construction began in 1718. In the mid-18th century, it was equipped with a temporary roof, which collapsed in 1939. This skeleton has no windows, floors, furnishings, or finishes, making it unique. In September, a festival born in the eighteenth century takes place here.

Returning to the intersection between via Cantù and via IV Novembre, turn right onto Largo Indipendenza and after a few steps you will be able to see on your left the Monument to the Fallen for the Fatherland, created by Piero Portaluppi, the architect of Villa Necchi Campiglio in Milan.

Once you reach the end of Largo Indipendenza, the Ossuary of the Church of St. John the Evangelist is on your right. Built in the second half of the eighteenth century, it is characterized by the entrance portico with three arches with columns and a vaulted roof.

Thus, you find yourself in Piazza Don Carlo Gnocchi to admire the facade of the Church of Saint John the Evangelist. Probably before the thirteenth century but certainly enlarged in the fifteenth century, in the eighteenth century, a further renovation led to the creation of the choir.

Today, the late Gothic frescoes are added to neoclassical elements of the early nineteenth century, such as the bell tower, designed by Giovanni Brioschi and Giuseppe Bovara, in a mix of styles that also passes through the baroque style of the frescoes in the Carmine Chapel.

Leaving the church behind, turn left via Crocifisso and right into Aldo Moro. After a few tens of meters on your right, in Piazza Martiri della Liberazione, you can observe the mosaic on the Resistance by Orlando Sora, installed in 1981, on the facade of the town hall.

Once you reach the end of via Moro, turn left via Cavour, continue into piazza Fratelli Panzeri, and then keep right to take via Bertarelli; here at number 11 stands Villa Bertarelli, an eighteenth-century residence now home to the Monte Barro Park and the Autochthonous Flora Centre. Located along the road that leads to Camporeso, in the ancient district of Rizzolo, it stands out for its neo-baroque style, the result of the restoration carried out by Piero Portaluppi. If you wish, you can visit the historic gardens of the villa on Saturdays (if not on holidays): 7 thousand square meters that host educational tours inside underground tunnels, a landmark greenhouse, and the Portaluppi fountain.

Once past the villa, turn left into Piazza Trieste to go up the steps leading to the Church of Sant’Eusebio al Rizzolo. The porticoed entrance and the five Tuscan columns welcome you into the single nave interior, which houses a stone frontal with a medal depicting the Assumption with Saints John the Baptist and the Evangelist supported by angels.

Returning to Piazza Trieste, turn left onto Via Trento and go straight ahead, continuing onto Via Campa: that is the road that leads you to Camporeso, an ancient medieval village that houses the Ethnographic Museum of Alta Brianza. The museum, located inside Villa Maschio-Giudici, intends to document the life of the popular classes of Brianza in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries with films, photos, and objects.  Monday and Thursday are closed. There is a car park with 20 spaces.

Return to the intersection between Via Bertarelli and Piazza Fratelli Panzeri, turn right onto Via Como, and keep right at the next intersection. Always go straight, continuing along via Staurenghi until you reach the hamlet of Sala al Barro. On your right, you will find the Church of Santa Maria Beata Vergine Assunta. The gabled façade shows a pronaos with three arches, while the wooden entrance portal has a stone frame.

Leaving the church on your right, you exit Pedro Vasena Street. Turning right and reaching number 4, you can discover a notable example of Art Nouveau architecture: Villa Vasena Ronchetti. Built-in 1907, today it is municipal property and often hosts shows and concerts; furthermore, it is the headquarters of the Mountain Community  of Eastern Lario

Now go back along via Vasena and, after the roundabout, continue ahead via Verdi to see, on your left, the Church of Saint Joseph. There is a Virgin and Child by Giulio Cesare Procaccini and wooden statues of Saints Simone Peter and Paul.

If you wonder what to see in Galbiate while walking amid nature, know that you are spoiled for choice thanks to the different paths and views of the Monte Barro natural park, which offers you many alternatives: an archaeological museum, an ethnographic museum, an climbing crag, spectacular woods and evidence of the past. Not to be missed, among other things, is the echo of Camporeso and the church of San Michele, unique because it has no roof.

Path 301, for example, is a sort of perimeter ring of the park which reaches a maximum altitude of 690 meters above sea level, passing through the archaeological park and Pian Scirea.
The archaeological area of the Gothic settlement, dating back to the 5th and 6th centuries AD, allows you to observe the remains of a fortified site that was built in the Late Empire by the Romans to counter the barbarian invasions.

Path 302 allows you to reach the summit at 922 meters  old mule track. On the route, you will find the Eremo locality, which houses the  Barro Archaeological Museum (ticket costs 2 euros, free for over 65s) is one of the most intriguing museums in Brianza. More than 400 original artifacts found during the archaeological excavations at Monte Castelletto and Piani di Barra are preserved here. Nearby, you will find the Panzeri visitor center, an archeology laboratory, and an environmental education laboratory.
The Eremo also houses a hostel and the Church of Saint Mary of the Angels, a neo-Gothic building with frescoes from the 16th and 17th centuries. Inside, you can admire the chapel of Sant’Antonio da Padova and the chapel of San Francesco d’Assisi, as well as a wooden altar with a Madonna of the lily.

Path 303 then starts from Camporeso and connects with path 301. Here, there is a climbing crag with various equipped routes. You can leave your car in the car park at Piazzale Quota 400 to reach it. There are around 150 itineraries, and several routes can also be used by those who are beginners in the field of sports climbing.
But that’s not all, because here you can also experience the Eco di Camporeso (via Campa), known as the Eco della Brianza: Cesare Cantù claimed it could answer up to 14 syllables. At the same time, Piero Gadda Conti could even reach at 16. What is certain is that the solid receiving body is the façade of Palazzo Rusconi. At the same time, the extension of the echo varies based on the pruning and deforestation of the vegetation between the palace itself and the small balcony on via Camporeso.

Path 304 also joins 301, which starts from the Bridge Azzone Visconti di Lecco and is the most challenging, with a total altitude difference of 720 meters.

Path 305, which passes through Due Case and Tre Corni, is equally complex: the climb follows the Sentiero delle Creste.

You can also reach the archaeological park with path 306, which starts from Malgrate and passes through the Bosco del Faée, and with path 307, which passes through the Roccolo di Costa Perla and the Sentiero delle Torri. Along this path, you can see the mural, that is, what remains of the watchtowers of the ancient city wall.
The numerous springs characterize the Bosco del Faèe (beech forest). Outside the hermitage, there is still a tunnel that in the past led to the iceboxes, which were filled with snow and used to preserve the ice obtained in winter. Near the springs, there are many artifacts created to exploit the spring waters: remains of pulleys and pumps for the aqueducts built for the sanatorium, which was opened here in 1931.

The Roccolo of Costa Perla was built for hunting at the beginning of the last century: today, it is an ornithological station that hosts educational and scientific activities, which can be visited during ringing campaigns. The birds are captured without harm being done to them and are released back into the wild after being ringed and measured.

The Sentiero di Mezzo of itinerary 301 can also be reached from Valmadrera with path 308.
From Sala al Barro, you can take path 311, which passes by the center of Camporeso and connects with path 306.

Finally, to reach Saint Michael, you can start from Pescate with path 312, while path 313 connects the sanctuary with the Pian Sciresa plateau.

Pescate, like many cities in Brianza, it is one of the places that inspired Alessandro Manzoni in the writing of his The Betrothed: located between the lake and the mountain, enclosed between the Monte Barro Park and the Adda Park, Pescate is a small strip of land of considerable environmental interest where the beauty of the natural landscape overlooking the lake seems to make it a harmonious postcard. The lake reflects the town, offering a fascinating view that has always made this enchanting village characteristic. It is one of those places in the world where nature and its particularities remain uncontaminated, and urbanization has managed to fit in harmoniously without destroying its primordial appearance.

The Lake and the Mountain are the two elements that characterize Pescate: the lake is precisely the one described by Manzoni in the famous “That branch of Lake Como, which turns towards the south, between two uninterrupted chains of mountains” and again “… and the Adda begins again, to then take up the name of the lake where the banks, moving away again, let the water relax and slow down in new gulfs and new inlets”, and on which Pescate reflects. Everything has remained as in Manzoni’s observation and perception: pausing to look at the lake and the opposite shore, a breathtaking scenario emerges, which is what immediately conquered the heart of one of the greatest writers of European literature, to the point of reporting it in words almost as if it were a painting.

The mountain panorama also contributes to the charm of the landscape: after the lake, there is a strip of land, and shortly after, the mountains begin. Monte Barro is today a Regional Natural Park, on whose slopes grows a lush and rare flora composed of rare specimens that are still preserved today. Numerous easily accessible paths branch off its slopes, leading to a breathtaking  view of the Pre-Alps, the Alps, and the lakes of Brianza. The big surprise is that in recent times, some archaeological excavations have brought to light exciting buildings and finds dating back to the Gothic age, dating back to around the end of the 5th century and the first half of the 6th century: it is an area that can be visited and which today grows the importance of the Mount is even more so, also from a historical-cultural as well as environmental landscape aspect.

It overlooks the waters of the lake of the same name. Its territory is part of the Adda Nord Park, the Monte Barro Park, the PLIS of Monte di Brianza, and the Lario Orientale Valle San Martino Mountain Community.

You could start your tour of the town from the Church of Saints Cosma e Damiano, built between the 17th and 18th centuries: it is located in via Marconi, at the intersection with via Galbiate). On the southern wall, a fresco dating back to the fourteenth century was found in 2013, depicting Saint Anthony Abbot.

Leaving the church on your right, walk along Via Marconi until the intersection with Vicolo Valle d’Orco: on your left, you can observe the Giazzéra, an octagonal building that, until 1930, was used to preserve meat. The building, dating back to the 18th century, is characterized by a brick vault: every winter, ice and snow were brought and pressed with a wooden cylinder before being put in contact with the meat.

Once you reach the end of Via Marconi, turn right into Piazza Vittorio Veneto. At number 2, there is the entrance to the Curt del Vignascia, where the slaughterhouse was in operation in the 1920s. Furthermore, various local artisans found their place on Saturdays, from the tinsmith (who showed the tinned copper pans) to the tailor.

On the left, in Piazza Vittorio Veneto 4, there is the seventeenth-century Villa Gnecchi, which in the past belonged to the Gnecchi family, the same family that lived in Villa Gnecchi Ruscone in Verderio.

Continuing, you take via Risorgimento: on your right at number 143, you can observe Palazzo Mantegazza Mauri, with a fresco of the Annunciation painted on the façade, dates back to the fifteenth century. The quadrangular courtyard is accessed via a granite portal on which the date 1688 is engraved. Having belonged to the noble Meraviglia Mantegazza family in the eighteenth century, the building was later renamed Cà di furestéri because it welcomed workers from the local silk industry from all over Northern Italy.

After a few meters, turn left to reach, in Piazza Santo Stefano, the Church of Saint Stephen, dating back to at least the 10th century: worth seeing inside is the high altar, which Giuseppe Bovara created. The courtyard of the parish house, however, houses the tombstone of Pierius, commander of the bodyguard in the service of the Hun general Odoacer who died in the Battle of the Adda fought against Theodoric in August 490.

Returning via Risorgimento, resume your route and, after passing Piazza Matteotti and via Volta, turn right into via Manzoni: walking along this street, you will immerse yourself in a journey back in time. Number 209 via Manzoni, in particular, overlooks the Cà de la Masséra, the Housewife’s House.

In via Manzoni 183, there is the Curt de Checu, which is entered through a sixteenth-century round stone portal. The external part of the building, however, dates back to the 17th and 18th centuries. Immediately afterward, turning right, you can enter the Curt del Bèrghem, where in the past, they dedicated themselves to the processing of grapes.

You could return via Risorgimento at this point: turn right to reach number 45, where Villa Testori De Capitani is worth seeing. Also known as Villa Gadda, it is part of the seventeenth-century complex of Villa Pozzi, which includes an internal courtyard and a large park with many cedars of Lebanon. The villa houses, in the vault of the hall on the ground floor, there is a cycle of frescoes by Cherubino Cornienti which reproduces the myth of Prometheus.

Once you reach the end of via Risorgimento, turn left onto via Statale; after a few meters, on your right at number 490, you will find the entrance to the Abegg Silk Museum. Housed in an eighteenth-century spinning mill in a mulberry garden overlooking the lake, the museum was inaugurated in the 1950s and allows visitors to learn about the discoveries and tools of the silk industry. It houses inventions and processing machines of silk (still working).

You can take advantage of the guided tours scheduled on Saturdays and Sundays (during the week by reservation only). The ticket price is 4 euros.

The Garlate Silk Museum is just one of the many museums in Brianza that deserve to be visited: in the post below, I will also introduce you to others.

Opposite the museum entrance is the former Villa Abegg, which houses the town hall today. Built-in 1860 in late neo-classical style, in the past, it housed a warehouse of the silk complex on the top floor, while it still maintains the layout of a civil house, complete with a kitchen equipped with fireplace and oven and a large reception room.

Lake Garlate is your destination, also thanks to the cycle/pedestrian path that continues along Lake Olginate. It is bathing, but on the opposite bank from Garlate: if you want to swim, you must go to Vercurago or Maggianico.

This is one of the locations where you can fish in Brianza: to do so; you must have a federal Fipsas card. The fishing area starts from Calcherino, more or less at number 1963 of Via Statale, and reaches up to Olginate. Among other things, you will find bleaks, whitefish, carp, tench, and eels.

Around the lake, there is a very convenient cycle/pedestrian path: you can access it, for example, via Statale at number 842. There is no doubt: this is undoubtedly one of the most evocative cycle paths in Brianza.

Bathed by the lake’s waters of the same name, Olginate is part of the Adda Nord Park and reaches the top of Mount Regina, 830 meters above sea level.

You could start from the park of Villa Carmen, which houses a roman arc: in particular, it is a structure built in the Middle Ages on the remains of an ancient Roman bridge, which today serves as a lookout. The residence, in Art Nouveau style, is also known by the name of Villa Schiatti and is located via Mario Redaelli 17, overlooking the dam of Lake Olginate.

Speaking of the Roman bridge, if you happen to be in these parts during dry periods, you might be lucky enough to notice the foundations of the pylons emerging from the water.

Leaving Villa Carmen on your left, just follow Via Mario Redaelli to the end to reach the eighteenth- century Church of Saint Agnes, at the intersection with Via Don Gnocchi and Via Sant’Agnese: the design of the bell tower and facade is attributed to Giuseppe Bovara , the “father” of the Church of San Giorgio in Annone Brianza.

If you continue along via Sant’Agnese, the second street you will find on the left is via San Rocco: here stands the Church of Saint Roch built in 1757.

A few more steps to the end of via San Rocco and, you reach Piazza Marchesi d’Adda, where there is Villa d’Adda Sirtori, built between the 18th and 19th centuries, which today houses the premises of the civic library.

From here, you can take the path on your left, via Torre, which takes you – in fact – to a tower. Built-in the mid-fifteenth century, it was used as a surveillance post when the Adda served as a border between the Duchy of Milan and the Republic of Venice: today, it is known as the Torre del Porto. It is located between numbers 15 and 17 of the square Garibaldi. This square was once known as Santa Margherita or Port Square.

Returning to the lakeside and proceeding, leaving the dam behind, you will reach the former Olginate spinning mill, active until the early 1930s: in the period of maximum activity, it produced 17 tons of silk every year.

At the crossroads between via Albegno and via Santa Maria (at number 10), however, you can admire the Church and Convent of Santa Maria La Vite. There was a monastery here, which closed in 1782 and then transformed into a silk factory and rural house before seeing religious functions restored in the second half of the nineteenth century. With a single nave, the church houses sixteenth-century decorations and an incomplete fresco of the Last Supper.

At this point, you could discover the two Olginate hamlets: Capiate and Consonno.

The village of Capiate still maintains the entrance portal to the eighteenth century village today: it is in via IV Novembre, in front of via Monsignor Cesare Orsenigo.

From here, you can explore Capiate Castle (or Court of Sant’Ambrogio), which houses an  imposing medieval tower and several rustic and noble buildings built between the fourteenth and eighteenth centuries. Among these, the small Oratory of San Giuseppe stands out, which houses an altarpiece with a depiction of the saint created by the Spanish painter Clemente de Torres.

If you want to know what to do in Olginate to learn about local history when you are in Capiate don’t forget to go to via Caromano 23 to observe Cascina Caromano, built in the fifteenth century. The complex includes a 14th-century entrance and a tower building made a few decades later.

However, nineteenth-century rural buildings can be seen in the town of Carsaga, inside the Adda Nord Park: you can reach it by walking (strictly on foot) via Bedesco.

Better known is the story of Consonno, which I have already mentioned. Here you can observe, among other things, the minaret with its tower: in the 1960s, it featured a shopping arcade with shops on the ground floor and apartments on the first and second floo rs. Bagno even intended to build a racetrack here, but that project never saw the light of day.

Among the few buildings that Bagno did not raze to the ground to create his city of toys in Consonno was the Church of San Maurice, probably dating back to the 12th century, which can still be observed today via Brianza.

If you are a fan of film tourism in Brianza, you will be interested to know that some scenes of Sons of Hannibal, a comedy by Davide Ferrario starring Silvio Orlando and Diego Abatantuono, were filmed in Consonno . And this is just one of the many films shot in Brianza.

For lovers of cycle tourism in Lombardy, the lake cycle path that starts from Lecco and Reaching Olginate and passing through Garlate offers beautiful views, thanks to the mountain reliefs you are surrounded by.

If you want to enjoy relaxation by the lake, refer to the Gueglia beach, which has a sand and pebble bottom. You can access it directly via Gueglia.

Of notable architectural and aesthetic interest, a few steps from the beach is the Olginate dam, which separates Lake Olginate from Lake Garlate; completed in the 40s of the last century, it is 150 meters long and allows you to regulate the level of Lake Como.

Also noteworthy is the bridge that connects Olginate with Calolziocorte, named after Vittorio Emanuele III and inaugurated in 1911.

The lake is also one of the locations where you can fish in Brianza (carp, tench, whitefish, eels, bleak, royal perch, chub). To do this, you need to have a federal Fipsas card.

Furthermore, the territory of Olginate falls within the PLIS of Monte di Brianza. Path 9 starts from Consonno and arrives in Campiano after passing Dozio and Biglio, hamlets of Valgreghentino.

The territory is part of the Adda Nord Park and the PLIS of Monte di Brianza; the Adda River and the Tolsera stream bathe it. I advise you to start your walk in the town from the crossroads between via Italia and via Europa: here you will find the Bagina fountain, an ancient public wash house that is still functioning.

Leaving the fountain on your right, you can take Via Italia and follow it to the end, then turn left onto Via Postale Vecchia. This is a road with a fascinating history: it was used in fact, as a mule track by Napoleon during the Italian Campaign and then as a military road by the Austrians, when it was renamed “via Radetsky”.

Walk along via Postale Vecchia and take the third street on the left (via Dante), then immediately turn right into via Pizzagalli Magno. You will thus emerge into the old core of the town in Via San Giovanni, where on your right, you will notice the Church of Saint John the Baptist  overlooking Vicolo San Giovanni. Built in the 1650s at the request of Francesco Bernardino Vimercati, it houses an altarpiece depicting the Madonna and Child with Saint Lawrence and Saint John the Baptist at her feet.

Continuing to walk along Via San Giovanni, turn into the first street on the right to reach Piazza Fenaroli, where Palazzo Fenaroli stands, formerly known as Villa Loajsa: the Loajsas were a Spanish family who lived in the town in the second half of the 16th century. In front of the building, you can see the Fenaroli Tower.

Keeping the tower on your right, take via Vittorio Emanuele and then turn left; after the car parks, cross via dei Nobili to reach via San Francesco, where at number 24 there is the Church of Saints Cosma e Damiano. The building owes its current appearance to the expansion by Giovanni Barboglio at the beginning of the 1930s. Embellished with an organ built in 1721, the church houses paintings by Giuseppe Paganelli on the walls and by Giuseppe Carsana on the dome.

Next to the church is the climb up via Santi Cosma e Damiano. This paved road leads to the Sanctuary of the Madonna della Rocchetta, located in a panoramic position: you can enjoy a splendid panorama from here.

The route to the sanctuary features seven eighteenth-century chapels on which the mysteries of the Passion are frescoed. The building, however, houses a frontal from 1709 and a canvas from 1607 depicting Saint John of Compostela. Outside, a door allows entry to an ancient courtyard with a well from the first half of the 18th century, while a small loggia with arches supported by 17th-century columns will enable you to observe the landscape drawn by the Adda.

Returning to the beginning of via San Francesco, turn right into via dei Nobili and continue on the Alcherio viaduct, then turn left via Don Gaetano Solaro stands Villa Fenaroli, known for having hosted between the end of the 60s and beginning of the 70s of the last century, a retirement home for elderly journalists named after Giovanni Amendola: on the occasion of its inauguration it was also visited by the President of the Republic Giuseppe Saragat.

Today, the building houses a congregation of missionary nuns. The entrance is at number 19, but to admire the villa from afar you should go in front of number 18.

Leaving the villa on your left, you can proceed along Via Don Solaro toward the small town of Aizurro. After about ten hairpin bends, you will come out via San Genesio, where at number 19, the Church of San Macario is worth seeing: the figure of the saint is painted on the façade between two kneeling angels. With three naves, the church houses a chapel dedicated to the Blessed Virgin of the Assumption and one dedicated to San Giuseppe.

If you are curious to know what to see in Airuno in the midst of greenery, you can take advantage of the nature trails of the PLIS of San Genesio.

In particular, path 4 starts from the Airuno station to reach San Genesio passing through Aizurro and Campiano.

Path 5 leads from Aizurro to Crosaccia in about thirty minutes; you can access it via Alla Chiesa. If you arrive in Aizurro by car, I recommend leaving your car in the car parks in Piazza Roma (where there is another suggestive public wash house of ancient origins).

In front of the board of institutional posters and obituaries, right in the square, you will find the trail signs indicating the paths.

Finally, path 7 leads from Airuno to Crosaccia in just over an hour. The woods around Aizurro, moreover, are some of the best areas to find chestnuts in Brianza.

Not just mountains, though: in Airuno you can also treat yourself to a walk along the Adda. To get to the riverside you have to take the dirt road you find via del Donatore shortly after the intersection with via Di Vittorio. Once you reach the Adda, if you turn right, you will soon get a small beach where you can stop.

It is a delightful jewel of the Brianza area of Lecco, in the past the seat of the patrician family of the same name. Located in the lower San Martino valley, the town was, for a long time, a border town between the Duchy of Milan and the Serenissima Republic of Venice.

I advise you to start your tour of the town from the hamlet of Beverage: via Prinetti, in front of number 14, you can admire the Church of Saints Margherita and Simpliciano. It is thought that the latter, master of Saint Augustine and successor of Saint Ambrose, was born in this location. The Church, built in the first half of the 1950s, has seven arched openings in the upper order of the facade, while a pronaos with three entrance doors characterizes the lower one.

Leaving the Church on your right, you can walk along via Prinetti to reach the intersection via San Simpliciano and via ai Campi: here, you will find a public fountain built in 1878, which the locals call Trumba.

From this point you can take via San Simpliciano to reach, in via Campanile, the Oratory of Saint Margaret, built in 1717 and completed by a stone bell tower made a few decades later. Inside, the altarpiece depicting Santa Margherita and San Simpliciano adoring the Madonna is worth seeing. Cascina Galbusera overlooks the same square, a typical example of a two-story Lombard farmhouse with large round arch openings once used as a warehouse and barn on the upper level.

Returning to the crossroads via San Simpliciano and via Prinetti, take via ai Campi and follow it to the end, then turn right onto via Como.

From here, immediately turn left into via Vaccarezza: the first building you come across is Cassina Nuova, once known as Cassina Vaccarezza. In the internal courtyard, a nineteenth- century icon of Our Lady of Sorrows with the Dead Christ is worth seeing.

Continue along via Vaccarezza and, when you reach the stop sign on your right, you will see the Corte di Vaccarezza, with a nineteenth-century fresco of a Madonna with Child and a medieval-style terracotta single-lancet window.

At this point, you can go back via Vaccarezza, turn left via Como, and then left again via Collina: proceeding along this road, you immerse yourself in the historic center of Foppaluera. This village has maintained the same shape as in the 19th century.

Once you reach the top of the climb, between number 46 and number 48 of Via Collina you will see the Church of Saint Mary of the Snow: in front there is a staircase, with a landing every 33 steps, which at the top seems to embrace the shrine containing a statue of Saint Joseph.

Now go down the steps and turn right onto via Fondoripa; constantly go straight, continuing along via Viganò, and then turn left into via Tessitura. At the small roundabout, go left via Cartiglio and reach number 10 to discover Cassina Cartiglio, which already existed in the first half of the eighteenth century.

Once back at the small roundabout, continue until the large roundabout you see in front of you and turn left via Como; after a few tens of meters, go right onto via Dante Alighieri. Here, on your right, you will see the Church of San Louis, dating back to the 1920s, inserted in the complex of the oratory of the same name, built in neo-Romanesque style.

After passing the Church, go straight until you see Via Roncaccio on your left: this is where Cassina Roncaccio stands, already existing in the eighteenth century. In particular, the round window close to the attic on the eastern façade stands out.

Once back on via Dante, take the first road you find on the right, via Recli, and then turn left into the hamlet of Canosse: so you can immerse yourself in the atmosphere of times gone by of Cassina Canossa, a farmhouse with an open courtyard preceded by a small shrine of a classical aedicule with a relief representing a Madonna with Child.

Continuing to walk along via Recli, however, in front of number 7 you will find Cassina Foino, which houses a well still functioning today. The fresco representing the Madonna of Caravaggio on one of the walls is worth seeing.

Once past Cassina Foino, turn right to reach Cassina Bastiglia, from whose heights you can admire the Adda. Dating back to the mid-15th century, it is characterized by the imposing buttress of the upstream corner and the wooden loggia supported by the pillars of the three-room portico.

Now you can go back along via Como: thus, you will come across the Church of Saint Leonard is on your left, between via Figino and via Madonna del Latte. Flanked by a bell tower dating back to the first half of the eighteenth century, the Church inside houses wooden statues of San Carlo and San Mammete, as well as the effigy of the Madonna del Latte.

From the Church, cross the road to reach the roundabout at the intersection between via Cartiglio and the SP 342 and proceed towards the underpass. Along its walls, a mural that tells the story of the town’s festival (the tug of war, the maypole on the river, and so on) is worth admiring: a splendid work of street art in Brianza.

After having “resurfaced,” continue your walk along Via Como to arrive at the intersection with Via Santi Patroni, where you will find the Church of Saints Sisinio, Martirio, and Alessandro. Built-in 1744 and completed in 1760, the main façade (designed by Carlo Amati, the architect of the chapel of Villa Durini in Alzate Brianza) shows a triangular tympanum above a lunette with mosaic decoration.

Take via Santi Patroni, then turn into the first street on the right (via Ignazio Cantù) and from here continue right into via Sant’Antonio: you will thus come across the Oratory of Saint Anthony Abbot, with a granite portal and an old well to the side.

Returning to the intersection between via Sant’Antonio and via Ignazio Cantù, take via Cesare Cantù: on your left at number 1 you will notice the emphatic portal of the Villa of the Piccinini family of Marsciano, perhaps even before the 17th century.

A little further on, next to number 8 of via Cesare Cantù, there is Piazzetta Sinagoga: it probably owes its name to the presence of Jewish families, but there is no evidence of this. You can see partly medieval houses overlooking semi-covered streets after passing the access arch to the small square.

Continue along via Cesare Cantù and reach number 14: this is where Cesare Cantù’s birthplace stands, used as a museum. Like other museums in Brianza, this one is also open by appointment (you can contact the number 039 5320114).

Once you reach the end of via Cesare Cantù, cross the small square to reach the riverside.

Turn left and continue until you see the Brivio Castle rising in front of you in Piazza Carlo Frigerio: a square-shaped building with circular towers at the two southern corners. Its expansion was carried out in the 15th century by the architect Bartolomeo Gadio, also known for his interventions on the Rocca di Soncino and the Sforzesco Castle in Milan. Here in the 19th century, a silver foil capsule was found, which is today in the Louvre Museum in Paris. Inside the castle are the remains of the original plebeian Church of Brivio.

From the castle, walking backwards along the Lung’Adda you can walk towards the bridge and cross it: in the Molinazzo area you will find the Felolo-Mejani spinning mill, with traces of frescoes on the north side and a fake ashlar covering. It is a splendid example of industrial archaeology, a testimony to the activity carried out in the silk factories of the area.

Continuing on the road along the river, you will come across the Toffo spinning mill in the hamlet of the same name.

The Lung’Adda is the main nature itinerary you can follow if you want to know what to see in Brivio during a day trip from Milan. The river, in the Brivia area, has a tortuous course and creates a meander whose bend delimits the Isola della Torre and the Isolone del Serraglio: it is a vibrant marshy area from a biological point of view. You can quickly come across mute swans, herons, and heronry among alders, white willows, and poplars.

A town of just over 5 thousand inhabitants in the Brianza area, Calco  includes two hamlets: Calco Superiore and Arlate.
Calco Superiore, in turn, includes numerous localities: Caviggiolo, Vescogna, Ventola, Torre, Ronco, Ronchetto, Roncaccio, Grugana and Gera. If you want to know what to see in Calco, you could start your tour of the town via Solferino, in the Grugana area: here stands the eighteenth century Villa Cavalli (also known as Villa Grugana) is today the headquarters of the PIME. If at the beginning of the access road to PIME, you turn right to follow the path that runs alongside Cascina San Martino, you can arrive at the small Church of Saint Martin, named after the patron saint of wayfarers and pilgrims.
At this point go down via Solferino and, once you reach the end, turn right into via Principe Falco. Once past the cemetery, continue along via Colombo. Thus you arrive in  locality Vescogna, at the crossroads between via Ghislanzoni and via Donatori del Sangue: at number 4 you can admire Villa La Vescogna. Built in the fourteenth century, it has Italian gardens with three rows of terraces; on the side slope of the hill on which it stands, the Romantic Forest stands out, built in the 19th century, while the more sheltered area houses the ancient lemon grove. Giuseppe Verdi was also a guest here in the past.
Villa Calchi is located next to Villa La Vescogna, in Vescogna 16 . Once known as Castellaccio, Villa Ghislanzoni or Palazzaccio, the residence is situated in a splendid panoramic position.

Both Villa Calchi and Villa La Vescogna are privately owned; therefore, you have to limit yourself to observing them from the outside. Not infrequently, however, guided tours are organized on Sundays.

Leaving Villa La Vescogna on your left, turn right via Ghislanzoni to reach località Calco Superiore, where, at number 1, you can come across Villa Moriggia. In the past, the building housed a convent of the Humiliated; more recently, Jacopo Castelfranchi, a publisher and entrepreneur known in the world of football (he succeeded Albino Buticchi as president of Milan) and cycling (thanks to the GBC team), lived here.

At the entrance to the villa there is the Oratory of San Carlo and Santa Maddalena, built in the second half of the sixteenth century but probably reworked two centuries later. Inside, there is a fresco depicting Saint Michael with Lucifer.

At this point, you could go back and turn right to go down Via Ghislanzoni: once you reach the crossroads with Via San Rocco, turn right to reach the Oratory of Saint Roch, on the corner with  locality Cereina presumably built in the first half of the fifteenth century, when it was dedicated to Santa Maria dell’Ospizio di Cereina, it was deconsecrated in the Napoleonic era and then reconsecrated at the beginning of the twentieth century. Inside, there are frescoes of San Giovanni, San Rocco, and San Sebastiano.

Since you’re here, take a few steps further along the road and walk on a private road to the Belvedere: looking to the left you’ll understand why it’s called that.

Going back, turn right into via San Rocco and then continue along via Roma: after a few dozen meters you will find the town of Torricella (or Turesela, in dialect) on your left. Thus, after passing an ancient arched portal, you can observe what remains of a watchtower with prisons, which in the past was part of the defensive system of the Duchy of Milan.

I then advise you to get to the end of via Roma and turn right into via San Giorgio: after a few tens of metres, you will find a dirt road on the left (right at the point where via San Giorgio crosses via Papa Giovanni XXIII). Walking along it, you will come to admire the Oratory of Sant’Antonio da Padova in the courtyard of Cascina Boffalora. The first information relating to this building dates back to the second half of the 17th century; inside, there is, above the altar, a canvas depicting the dead Christ with Federico Borromeo, San Carlo, and Francesco Forti.

To continue your tour that allows you to discover what to see in Calco, go back along via Roma, continue ahead via San Rocco, and turn right into via Trento; then, after crossing the provincial road, continue along via San Carlo and turn left onto viale della Chiesa.

Here stands the Church of Saint Vigilio, which houses a seventeenth-century wooden statue of Christ and an organ dating back to 1772.

Leaving the church on your right, you can turn left onto Viale delle Rimembranze and immediately right to take Via Piave: here, at number 27, is the eighteenth-century Villa Camerini. The building was originally a convent of the Humiliati, and was then transformed into a patrician residence in the second half of the 19th century. A few meters further begins the cobbled road leading to Onazzo, on the hill of the same name, which offers a splendid panoramic view.

Now you could move to Arlate: via San Gottardo, there is the Church of Saints Gotthard and Columban, on the top of a hill overlooking the Adda valley. Flanked by a square bell tower, the church is Romanesque and built with Molera stone from Brianza. It is presumed to have been built between 1125 and 1162; what is certain is that it was initially a female Cluniac monastery.

Leaving the church on your right, at the mouth of Via Parrocchiale and then turn left into Via Rabolini: arriving in Via della Crocetta you will have the opportunity to discover Villa Strigelli that was built by the same family who had the small village that today is built in the heart of the hamlet part of the 1711 Contrada Resort.

Itinerary 3 of the Adda Nord Park passes through the Calco area, which starts from Imbersago to get to Arlate: you can access it from the path that starts at the intersection of via Nuova Provinciale and via dei Mulini.

The towpath along the Adda takes you to the Toffo cleaner, where the Buca del Toffo di Brivio lake is located.

The Adda River in Calco is one of the locations where you can fish in Brianza: keep in mind, however, that you must have the Fipsas card if you want to fish in the stretch between Molinazzo and the columns of San Colombano. And, of course, you must have a Type B fishing license, unless you are under 18 or over 65.

If you feel like walking through the fields and paths of the town, however, I suggest you take the Strada della Casa delle Streghe, on the border with Brivio: it takes its name from a house near the woods which, according to those who lived in Arlate, it was a meeting place for witches. To reach it, take via Nuova Provinciale in the direction of Brivio and, immediately after the sign indicating the end of Arlate, turn left into the hamlet of Palazzetto.

Finally, the Calco woods are for you if you want to know where to pick chestnuts in Brianza: in particular, I would like to point out those at the end of the Belvedere area.

In Arlate, in Via San Gottardo, there is the Church of Saints Gotthard and Columban, on the top of a hill overlooking the Adda valley. Flanked by a square bell tower, the Church is Romanesque and built with Molera stone from Brianza. It is presumed to have been built between 1125 and 1162; what is certain is that it was initially a female Cluniac monastery.
The Church was founded before 1100 on a building from the Lombard era. The monastic presence suggests a relevance dependent on the Abbey of San Columban  in Bobbio, as was the Church of Saint Columban in Vaprio d’Adda.