Via Sacra, the Sacred Path of the Rosemary, commences at the foot of the Campo dei Fiori mountain range, north of Varese, within Campo dei Fiori Regional Park. For two kilometres, the wide cobble stone road winds up Sacro Monte di Varese, the Sacred Mountain of Varese that is dedicated to Catholic Marian worship, to the small medieval hamlet of Santa Maria del Monte.

Sacro Monte in Varese is one of nine Sacri Monti in Lombardy and Piedmont, two regions in Northern Italy bordering Switzerland, and an inscribed UNESCO World Heritage Site that we picked for a leisurely walk and lunch spot.

The Sacred path is lined by fourteen beautiful chapels, all different in shape, that depict the Mysteries of the Rosary, fountains, and arches, and with increasing altitude offers magnificent views.

However it almost seemed that the path itself– more pebble than cobble stone – and the pilgrimage to the Santuario (Sanctuary of Santa Maria del Monte), the 15th chapel, dedicated to the Virgin Mary – a steep climb almost 300m in elevation – were deliberately designed to be somewhat strenuous.

The weather was the best December has to offer in terms of sunny, snow-free days, yet the path was almost empty but for a few people that clearly came here for exercise and were briskly walking or running uphill and down, and hardly sparing the chapels a second glance.

We lunched on Italian goat cheese, focaccia, and small pastries, sitting on a flight of stairs leading up to one of the chapels – I lost count but I think it was the 10th – bathed in sunshine. Lunch was delicious, but as much as I love Italian cuisine, the art of baking bread they don’t master so well, with the exception of focaccia maybe.

Admittedly I’m no fan of the greasy flat oven-baked bread soaked in olive oil, but it is undeniably better than dry Grissini or equally dry crust enveloping much air and not much else that is passed off for bread. This shortcoming is easily forgiven though, considering they excel at pizza and Gnocco Fritto – fried bread typically served with dry-cured ham (con crudo) or salami but heavenly on its own – and as I haven’t ventured further south than Rome I may have many Italian bread delicacies to discover still.

The chapels themselves were closed, but the sanctuary and two museums in Santa Maria del Monte were open to visitors. We skipped the museums but stood on the viewing terrace for some time, fascinated by the panorama of the Po valley plains stretching towards the mountains of Bergamo, Valtellina, Lombardy, and the snow-covered Alps.

The Po, Italy’s longest river flowing eastward from the Cottian Alps to a delta near Venice wasn’t itself visible, but the skyline of Milano was. Varese is known as the “Garden City” our friends had told us, but December was unfortunately the wrong time of the year to appreciate the abundant greenery that in summer spills down the mountain and into the city’s gorgeous parks.