The Volta Circuit is Brunate’s fifteen-stage cultural walk, above Como. Its official main route runs from the Infopoint on Via Funicolare 16 to the Faro Voltiano: 2.3 kilometres, with a stated walking time of one hour. Allow longer to read the panels and stop along the way. The lighthouse is the endpoint, so plan the return separately.
This is a walk through the village’s people and places, guided by an imagined Alessandro Volta. Alongside the scientist, the route introduces poets, architects, religious figures and the people behind Brunate’s hotels and institutions. Follow the numbered panels in the order below.
1. Funicolare Station
Begin at the Infopoint at Via Funicolare 16. The route introduces its playful device here: an imagined Volta acts as your guide through Brunate, a village connected with his early childhood and later walks. The panels mix local history with that fictional voice; they are not quotations from a historical diary.
2. Parco Volta : Pencio Slavejkov
The next stop is Parco Volta, dedicated to Volta in 2000. Its other central figure is Bulgarian poet Pencio Slavejkov, whose final home was the Bellavista hotel opposite. The stage connects the park, his statue and the memory of his companion, poet Mara Belceva.
3. Funicolare : Federico Fellini
At Brunate’s upper funicular station, the route turns to the railway that transformed the village and its relationship with Como. Its featured visitor is Federico Fellini. The official panel tells an anecdote about the director being recognised by a fellow passenger; enjoy it as the story presented by the trail.
4. Nuvole Garden Hotel : Maharishi
The Nuvole Garden Hotel was formerly the Grand Hotel Milano. This stage moves from Brunate’s grand-hotel era to its later connection with Maharishi and a meditation centre. The contrast between those uses is part of the circuit’s appeal: one building can hold several different chapters of the village.
5. Former Grand Hotel Brunate : Giuditta Pasta
At the former Grand Hotel Brunate, the setting is the panoramic point known as Pizz. The stage recalls soprano Giuditta Pasta’s celebration here during the events of 1848, well before the hotel was built in 1893. This is a historical exterior stop, rather than a promise of hotel access.
6. Via Monti :Pietro and Maurizio Monti
Continue into the old village along Via Pietro e Maurizio Monti. The brothers behind the street name were scholars as well as local religious figures: Pietro worked with languages and parish life, while Maurizio wrote about Como’s history. The route places Volta among people who preserved and interpreted the area’s knowledge.
7. Casa della balia di Volta : the barometer-maker
At the Casa della balia di Volta, pay attention to the distinction made by the official account. A plaque at Via Volta 5 commemorates his childhood, but the panel identifies a nearby house as that of his wet nurse, Elisabetta Pedraglio. Her husband, barometer-maker Lodovico Monti, provides the link between domestic life and scientific curiosity.
8. Via Santa Guglielma : Guglielma
On Via Santa Guglielma, the subject becomes local devotion and the uncertain boundary between history and legend. The panel sets different traditions about Guglielma beside one another, including a possible identification with Guglielma of Bohemia. Read these as competing accounts rather than a settled biography.
9. Società di Mutuo Soccorso : Alda Merini
The Società di Mutuo Soccorso introduces poet Alda Merini through her grandparents, Giovanni Merini and Maddalena Baserga. The official stage connects Giovanni with the society’s foundation and places the family story within Brunate’s tradition of mutual help. It is a stop about the village’s social life as much as its literary connections.
10. Chiesa di Sant’Andrea : Maddalena Albrici
At the Church of Sant’Andrea, look for the memory of Blessed Maddalena Albrici. The stage discusses the altar and paintings dedicated to her, alongside the story of the former Augustinian convent. Its account of the miraculous arrival of bread belongs to the religious tradition narrated by the panel.
11. Casa BBPR : Lodovico Belgiojoso
The Casa BBPR stage introduces a quieter architectural language than the grand hotels. The official account describes Lodovico Belgiojoso’s rationalist family house, built during the Second World War, and his later recollection of it while imprisoned at Gusen. It treats the building as both architecture and a deeply personal place of refuge. The house seems to be on sale.
12. Località Mirandola : prehistoric inhabitants
At Località Mirandola, the circuit reaches much further back in time. The panel recalls the discovery of a Neolithic stone axe in the surrounding woods. Its useful shift in perspective is from the lives of named people to the traces left by inhabitants whose names have not survived.
13. Villino Rubini : the Rubini family
The Villino Rubini stop brings the route into San Maurizio. The villa dates from around 1890 and its story connects the Rubini family with the wider political and industrial history of the lake. It marks the transition toward the park and lighthouse that complete the route. You can book it for private events apparently.
14. Parco Marenghi : Carlo Amoretti
In Parco Marenghi, Volta’s companion Carlo Amoretti comes to the foreground. The stage tells of their 1785 exploration and the discovery of a spring whose water was later channelled toward San Maurizio. It brings the scientific thread back to observation outdoors: a walk, a question and something hidden beneath the ground.
15. Faro Voltiano : Luigi Guanella
Finish at the Faro Voltiano. The stage traces the lighthouse idea to Luigi Guanella’s proposal in 1899 and its eventual realisation in 1927. The monument completes the walk’s connection between Volta and Brunate; reaching the final stop should be distinguished from being able to enter or climb the tower.
Bonus : Santuario di Santa Rita da Cascia
If you have some time and want to take a mild risk, i encourage you to walk up to this beautiful shrine filled with cats. Do not take the road. I prefer the mountain side. Let me know, if you see the gates to Westminster there or not :)
Use the numbered route panels for the walking line and the official itinerary for its digital stories. Map markers identify verified landmarks; some small panel locations are described in the text without an individual marker.
Enjoy!