"From the Alps to Sicily, Legnano is everywhere": the city appears in Italy's national anthem because here, on 29 May 1176, the Lombard League defeated Barbarossa — the first great victory of the Italian communes. Every last Sunday of May the Palio re-enacts it with one of Italy's most imposing historical parades and the eight-district race around the Visconti castle on the Olona river.
The other history is industrial: cotton mills and engineering made Legnano a capital of Lombard labour, and the Legnano cycling team dressed Bartali and Coppi. Milan is twenty minutes away; the character is entirely its own.
Near Legnano
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
