Visit Busto Arsizio

This time I want to talk about a town I feel emotionally close to: Busto Arsizio 


Busto Arsizio is a medieval origin town near the airport of Malpensa and just about 35 km from Milan. It is easily to reach by train such as local transport or Malpensa Express from several train stations from Milan and other surrounding cities. 

As the period of plague made several victims, Busto Arsizio was nearly totally burned and very little of this medieval period was left over. 
Busto means breast and Arsizio means burned. 

The old church of San Michele is still as a testimony from the ancient city: The bell tower was built in the 11th century. 
It is the habit of Lombardians to destroy everything old and not functioning and build something new. So you may see barely nothing at all even from the period of renaissance. 
During the French occupation Busto Arsizio and surrounding areas added several words from french language to their dialect. Just to mention one; they don't call lira as the old monetary unit but frank, as the old french monetary unit, although they are talking about the Italian lira. Also the dialect of this city has probably gaelic or German/Austrian back ground: using dots on the top of some vocals is really common. 

Busto Arsizio was until the 80's an important town for manufacturing and assembling of bedlinen and table clothes.

Some people in this city have become incredible wealthy by textile production and it is not unusual to see cars like Ferrari, Jaguar, Lamborghini or Porsche in the street picture.  
Most of these items were in earlier period also coloured in this town, but the environmental regulations forbid using chemical colouring so that most of those factories were closed and workmanshift moved to third world countries, such as China, India and Pakistan, just to name few. 
You may want to visit the local museum of textile, stone drop from the down town surrounded by a beautiful park. 

Arriving to Busto Arsizio, independent of the train station you may arrive, there are plenty of signs to invite you to take a walking tour to admire these Liberty stylsihed Villa's. As I walk a lot, I can't but admire all those beautiful buildings still visible in the city. 
I took this tour together with my friend Anne who visited me from the Netherlands on purpose to anticipate what you may see while visiting Busto Arsizio. 

After leaving either Busto Arsizio Central train station or the North Train Station, the itinerary leads you for a 5 km walk lasting nearly 3 hours if you like to shoot photos as I do. This tour will surprise you with the quantity of true pearls of architecture.  
And while walking around, there is plenty to pit stop for an ice cream, lunch or a coffee, aperitif and diner. As I am often here, I have gotten the priviledge to try many of those, and suggest you to do so. Busto Arsizio offers only one "local food" restaurant and it is truly interesting place to visit. Besides of the local food also the menu is written in bilingual; in Italian and in local dialect

Although Italy helps hundreds of thousands of immigrants from the mediterranean sea, Busto Arsizio still has very little of them: This city has a strong culture of right wing political party. You might have heard of Lega Lombarda, and Umberto Bossi during the period of Silvio Berlusconi. Umberto Bossi comes from a town near by and Busto Arsizio has probably the largest amount of Lega Lombardia supporters in this area. Lega Lombarda or Lega Nord has a political view that do not allow "wild immigration" and it is difficult to get a working permit, or house to rent at Busto Arsizio. In the 60's even those from Sicily were seen as immigrants and not wanted. You may find several southern men outside of local bars as it belongs to their culture to get out of the house, while wife cleans or cooks supper.  

When I first visited Busto Arsizio, I thought about this city as a dormitory for the people who work in Milan or at the Malpensa Airport due to the leak of restaurants, parks for children to play or open air sport fields. Only few restaurants and mainly pizzerias. Today the Chinese population has made their way with "all-you-can-eat" sushi restaurants, next to Moroccan shwarma sandwiches. But also Italians have decided to invest in this small 100.000 inhabitants town. More and more medium price restaurants such as Piadeneria; a typical Emiglia Romanian flat bread, or Italian style gourmet hamburger restaurants have opened their doors. There is nowadays plenty to choose from.

Ever since the period of the economical regression of 2008, Busto Arsizio saw many of the shops closing and no new entry was willing to get in. Nowadays new shops have opened their doors and many people from near by towns, such as Olgiate Olona, Castellanza and Gallarate find their way for shopping at Busto Arsizio. It is enjoyable to walk in the city, have an ice cream and sit down for an aperitif with a good company. 

It might be surpricing to find out several small breweries in this area. And due to it, new beer houses have found their way in this city. If you love beer, you may want to try some of the local ones. 

This area of Lombardia has very little of wine production; some of it in the hills of Varese, just recently restarted, and merely from the hills of Pavia, in the border of Emiglia Romagna and in the Garda Lake due to it's mite temperature. 

Busto Arsizio appears to be a safe city to live in, although there is always some trouble with minor criminality. Merely people are left in peace and only time to time some fighting takes place out of pubs and bars where alcohol is served. Italians are not heavy drinkers as we Scandinavians are, and they are not used to get really drunk. So when they do, they get totally out of control. Usually this happens among young people. And these fights are about a girl, who gave a look to another boy. 

Shakespeare had it right about the Italian temperament. 

If you decide to stay at Busto Arsizio, what is exactly that you may visit while staying here? Besides this town, nearby cities offer plenty to visit:

A day trip to Milan and Lake Maggiore, or Varese  and Saronno are interesting towns to visit, and just about 10-30 minutes by train. Also Novara forms an interesting town to visit due to it's history from the medieval and renessaince period and easy to reach by local train. As Lake como might seem far away, I assure that with local pubblic transport it is possible to visit it within one day. 

In case you hire a car, near Gallarate at Arsago Seprio are still ancient roman cavings and one of the best restaurants in the area, not to mention Olgiate Olona's 1 star Michelin restaurant. 

For kids during the summer time, Busto Arsizio offers out door swimming pools, recreation areas and play grounds in the public parks. Unfortunately dogs are still left a side, with one only separate dog park far from city centre. But dogs are treated pretty well: nearly every bar and restaurant allow dogs, and some shops too. 

In March Busto Arsizio holds a film festival called BAFF, with some interesting guest;  mainly famous Italian actors. 

Busto Arsizio is also well know by it's fencing club, and it's swimming pool. Each year both clubs hold international tournaments.  Also the local volleyball team plays in group A as the Italian female volleyball league. 

One of the most famous Italian violinist, Uto Ughi, is from Busto Arsizio and "a local guy" Gianluca Genoni, born in Galliate Novara, has won several competitions of diving without a mask, last one in 2012 down to 160 meters. 
The local football team Pro Patria is not equally good,as the sports teams mentioned above, but they have many local supporters.  

In the summer time Busto Arsizio among neighbouring towns offer night shopping. From Wednesday until Friday different cities keep their shops open until 11 pm with street music or fashion shows. 

Also many festivals take places in the summer season and Sagra's; local churches that organise happenings with food court, play ground, orchestra's and games. 

Now there is no reason why not visit or stay at Busto Arsizio. It is a valid option to some hotels in Milan far from Down Town. 
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Photos from the Liberty walking tour. Please ask permission to copy and and paste elsewhere

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