Visit these places and the fossil museums and discover a fascinating lost world that dates back over 200 million years. Monte San Giorgio is regarded as the world’s best fossil record of marine life from the Middle Triassic, a geologic epoch between 247 and 237 million years ago. The mountain has produced diverse and numerous fossils, many of which show exceptional completeness and detailed preservation and first started to be discovered and analysed in 1850 by Swiss and Italian palaeontologists.

The village of Castiglione Olona has ancient origins. It was a fortress in Roman times and later the village became the subject of a fierce dispute between the Visconti and Torriani families as they fought for years to gain control over the area around the banks of the River Olona.

Built in the sixteenth century as a country residence, Villa della Porta Bozzolo later became a country seat for the aristocracy. An impressive Italian garden was later added, which is now considered to be one of the most majestic examples of garden design in Italy. The ornate interiors preserve one of the most sophisticated and decorative series of frescoes from eighteenth-century life in Lombardy, which are attributed to the Varese artist Magatti.