Discover Olgiate Olona: holiday apartment, Olona trails and cultural heritage
Accommodation in Olgiate Olona
Olgiate Olona has a distinctive, multifaceted character: the town is largely flat, while a valley lies to the east, where the Olona River flows 20 metres lower. When choosing a holiday apartment in Olgiate Olona, it is therefore worth considering the experiences you want during the day. Cycling and walking trails, historic buildings and sacred art offer different focuses and can be combined into a varied trip.
File:FridaysForFuture 2019 in Olgiate Olona, Varese, Italy 01.jpg
Photo: Dario Crespi via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Flat landscape and trails along the Olona
A cycling and walking trail runs through the Parco del Medio Olona, mainly following the Olona's river embankment. In places, it runs alongside the former Valmorea railway line. The remains of mills and examples of industrial archaeology can also be seen along the river. They date back to uses of the Olona's hydropower that can be traced as far back as the 17th century.
At Via Molino del Sasso, the Valle-Olona route becomes a protected cycling and walking trail along the valley floor. Up to Olgiate Olona, this route runs mainly through inhabited areas and often along roads open to traffic. In Olgiate Olona, the Pista Ciclopedonale della Valle Olona passes Villa Greppi Gonzaga or provides access to it as part of the valley's historic, cultural and artistic heritage. Depending on your preferred pace for the day, this allows you to choose between the riverside landscape, the valley floor and trails close to the town.
Villa Greppi-Gonzaga and church art
The Villa Greppi-Gonzaga complex has been owned by the municipality since 1976 and today includes, among other things, a large public park. Its façades retain neoclassical elements: pediments, stone window surrounds, colonnades and smoothly finished rustication. The Church of Santi Innocenti is located within the complex. It was consecrated on 21 December 1936. Its apse contains the fresco “Gesù coi pargoli innocenti” and side paintings by Antonio Martinotti.
The ancient provost and collegiate church of Santi Stefano e Lorenzo martiri also reflects the town's long sacred history. Its origins lie in an ecclesiastical parish church, or pieve, that already existed in the 5th century; the façade wall features medieval herringbone masonry. The Madonna del Rosario Chapel was built in 1525 by residents of Olgiate Olona as a votive offering after the plague of 1524, expanded to an octagonal plan at the end of the 18th century and restored in 2007–2008. Biagio Bellotti created its vault paintings, inspired by the glory of Mary and Jesus, in 1784–1785.
Historic routes and other sacred sites
The Via Francisca del Lucomagno was a pilgrimage route that descended from Switzerland to the Via Francigena and onwards to Rome. At the Cappella San Genesio, restoration work covered the frescoes, the interior floor and the altar. After January 1982, the chapel underwent structural restoration; approximately one and a half years later, the building work was complete. The Church of San Gregorio Magno al Lazzaretto preserves the 17th-century painting “San Gregorio magno e le anime purganti”. In connection with the weekly market, it is open on Tuesday mornings; Mass is celebrated there at 8:30 a.m.
For orientation in the area, it is also noted that the entrance and car park of Parco OPAI are wheelchair accessible. You can find more places for planning your trip here: Grantola, Maccagno, Montecatini, Crugnola, Fagnano Olona, Gornate Olona, Travedona-Monate and Tradate.
For the higher-level travel overview: Varese.
