Piazza Monte Grappa

Piazza Monte Grappa, on the cusp of Varese's old town, is fascinating for history and architecture buffs. The square was completely remade in grand Fascist fashion in the early 1930s. Most extraordinary is the Torre Civica, an enormous and somehow menacing clock tower; at the base flowers an arengario (a balcony from which Mussolini and co could harangue the populace). It has an almost sci-fi quality about it.