Nutrendo Anima e corpo, Itinerari di delizia tra le Ville Del Sacro Monte Sopra Varese/FEEDING BODY AND SOUL Delightful journeys among villas in Sacro Monte above Varese

With its architectures, Liberty marked the territory of Varese from early twentieth century until the First World War and it is now an essential part of the landscape. The Liberty territory is produced by the stratification of both human and natural intervention, as a whole where nature and architecture are complementary elements in a coordinated design in which the curved line is the ordering element of an apparent disorder. Next to the most famous architectures by Sommaruga, a number of valuable villas of delights, with great potential for development, are at present an extremely vulnerable architectural heritage, being often private buildings, classified as minor less known examples, under no constraints and exposed to the risk of demolition and abandonment. These significant and remarkable examples of the place identity and vocation, characterized by the presence of four UNESCO sites, make the Sacro Monte an excellence that would require specific projects of protection and cultural touristic enhancement also in view of Expo 2015. Improving public awareness of the cultural and aesthetic values as territorial aspects worth of maintenance in order to ensure the necessary psychological and emotional well-being may be an essential step in the direction of practical conservation and protection of the landscape and the architecture. The research that led to the publication of this book is part of a path of knowledge, cataloguing and enhancement of cultural heritage system designed to attract the public attention and interest in respect of an area of outstanding natural and artistic beauty.