Masnago Castle features architecture from many different periods ranging from the Middle Ages to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. With a tower and splendid frescoed interiors, this mediaeval fortress feels more like a stately home than a defensive stronghold. It is particularly renowned for the series of frescoes in the Room of Pastimes and the Room of Vices and Virtues.

Villa Toeplitz stands imposingly on a hill to the east of Sant'Ambrogio, an area of Varese at the foot of Sacro Monte. The villa is currently home to one of the decentralised branches of the University of Insubria. The park covers about four hectares (nearly ten acres) and has a distinctive design of paths adorned with numerous varieties of exotic species and eye-catching water features.

Located between the upland and the valley of the River Olona, Castrum Sibrium was a military stronghold in Roman times and used over the following centuries by the Goths, Byzantines, Longobards and then the Visconti. Ottone Visconti, Lord of Milan, ordered the demolition of Castelseprio in 1287, with the exception of the religious buildings. One of these was the Church of Santa Maria Foris Portas (Latin for ‘outside the gates’) that was built between the fifth and ninth centuries.