The castrum with the Torba Tower and the c and Mercurago

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. The castrum with the Torba Tower and the c

   The Lombards get a bad press in most history books, which tend to treat them as the barbarians who arrived in Italy in 568 and broke what was left of Roman order. Castelseprio tells a subtler story. On a wooded spur above the Olona valley, north-west of Milan, stand the ruins of a late Roman and Lombard castrum, a fortified town that controlled the road between the plain and the Alpine lakes, and just outside its walls is the little church of Santa Maria foris portas, whose frescoes are among the most mysterious and beautiful paintings of early medieval Europe. Down by the river, the stout stone Torba tower, later part of a Benedictine nunnery, completes the group. Together they form one of the sites in the UNESCO listing of the Lombards in Italy.

   Read the complete The castrum with the Torba Tower and the c write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   The castrum with the Torba Tower and the c is where the day begins. Next is Isolino Virginia-Camilla-Isola di San Biag.

2. 2. Isolino Virginia-Camilla-Isola di San Biag

   Lago di Varese is the quiet one. The big lakes, Maggiore and Lugano, grab the postcards and the coach tours, while this shallow, reedy sheet of water just west of Varese gets on with being pretty in a modest way. Off its western shore, a few hundred metres out from Biandronno, floats a tiny wooded island called Isolino Virginia, and that speck of land is one of the most important prehistoric sites in the Alpine world.

   Read the complete Isolino Virginia-Camilla-Isola di San Biag write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Isolino Virginia-Camilla-Isola di San Biag comes up about 25 km into the recorded legs. Next is Mercurago.

3. 3. Mercurago

   Just south of Arona, at the southern tip of Lago Maggiore, a small regional park protects a landscape of woods, meadows and peat bogs called the Lagoni di Mercurago. The lagoni are small ponds and wetlands formed after the retreat of the glaciers, and in the nineteenth century, while peat was being dug, the remains of a Bronze Age pile dwelling settlement were found here, including a wooden wheel. Mercurago is part of the UNESCO site of prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps.

   Read the complete Mercurago write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 51 km into the recorded legs you reach Mercurago. Next is back through Isolino Virginia-Camilla-Isola di San Biag.

4. 4. back through Isolino Virginia-Camilla-Isola di San Biag

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Isolino Virginia-Camilla-Isola di San Biag write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Isolino Virginia-Camilla-Isola di San Biag, late in the day. Next is The castrum with the Torba Tower and the c.

5. 5. The castrum with the Torba Tower and the c

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete The castrum with the Torba Tower and the c write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at The castrum with the Torba Tower and the c. That is the ride.