Gavirate, on the northern shore of the Lago di Varese in Lombardy, has a sweet claim to fame: it is the home of the brutti ma buoni, ugly but good, crunchy biscuits made with hazelnuts and egg whites, which were reportedly invented here in the nineteenth century and are still sold in local pastry shops. The lake itself is a small, shallow lake surrounded by low hills, and its shores were home to some of the earliest pile-dwelling villages in Italy. The site of Bodio Centrale, also known as delle Monete, on the southern shore near Bodio Lomnago, is part of the Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps, listed by UNESCO in 2011.
The most famous pile-dwelling site of the lake is the Isolino Virginia, a small island near Biandronno, where a museum displays finds from the prehistoric villages. The lake is a peaceful place, with reeds, birds and a cycle path around the shore, and the views toward the Alps on a clear day are lovely.
The city of Varese, a short ride to the east, sits at the foot of the Campo dei Fiori, a mountain covered in forest, with a road that climbs to a summit with views over the lakes and the plain. On its slopes, the Sacro Monte di Varese, a pilgrimage route lined with chapels leading up to a sanctuary and village, is part of the UNESCO-listed Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy. The road up is steep and twisting, and the views from the top are splendid.
For riders, the area around Varese offers a mix of good roads. The hills between the Lago di Varese, Lago Maggiore and Lago di Lugano are crossed by small, winding roads through forests and villages, and the roads along Lago Maggiore, toward Luino and the Swiss border, are scenic though often busy. To the north, the Valganna and the Valcuvia lead toward Switzerland and the Ticino, with Bellinzona and its three castles further on. Traffic around Varese and on the main roads can be heavy, especially on weekdays.
Gavirate, a town of over nine thousand people about five kilometres away, has fuel, shops and restaurants. Try a plate of risotto with perch fillets from the lake, risotto con filetti di pesce persico, a classic dish of the Lombard lakes, and of course a bag of brutti ma buoni for the road, a perfect snack to munch at a viewpoint with the lake shining below.