The best road cycling routes in Parco Nord Milano

Villa Bagatti Valsecchi is a historic residence located in Varedo, in the province of Monza and Brianza. Originally built in the 18th century, the structure was redesigned in the late 19th century by architects Fausto and Giuseppe Bagatti Valsecchi as a family summer residence. Today it is an important cultural center managed by the Fondazione La Versiera 1718 and is famous for hosting major events related to art and design, such as the prestigious exhibitions of Alcova during Milan Design Week.

Castellazzo di Bollate, a historic hamlet located in the metropolitan city of Milan, famous above all for hosting the monumental Villa Arconati.

Parco Nord Milano extends for about 600 hectares between the districts of the northern periphery of Milan. Its conception dates back to the late 1960s, but it was only in 1975 that it was recognized by the Lombardy Region as a regional park. Its management is entrusted to a Consortium composed of the six Municipalities around the Park and the Province of Milan. The park is located in one of the most densely urbanized contexts in Europe, characterized by the presence of historic factories (now almost entirely disappeared as a result of de-industrialization) and large housing estates that, over time, have joined the northern periphery of Milan to its hinterland without any urban planning design. Parco Nord Milano currently boasts about 350 hectares of green areas, organized into wooded areas, clearings, rows of trees, shrub patches, hedges, and small bodies of water. Today, the park continues to expand and grow with the working methodology used over all these years, aware of its social, urban, and ecological role. The new reforestation lots, with small saplings of a few tens of centimeters protected by stakes, are the symbol of the growing park, of the investment in the future. But it is the management and maintenance of the green areas that best express the working methodology used: new problems have been met with new, technologically advanced solutions, in order to maintain that standard of quality of the green areas, that care and maintenance, which citizens have become accustomed to seeing, and which make Parco Nord Milano a concrete example of sustainable development for the entire city, similar to what happens in other major European cities. A place of quality, therefore, where technology, creativity, passion, and professional seriousness meet to satisfy the expectations of visitors and respond to the deep needs of the city.

Villa Arconati, also known as Il Castellazzo, is a magnificent 18th-century "pleasure villa" located in Bollate, in the hamlet of Castellazzo di Bollate in the province of Milan, within the Parco delle Groane. Born at the end of the 16th century as a noble house of the Cusani family, it was transformed in the 17th century by Count Galeazzo Arconati. Galeazzo Arconati made the villa famous for its extraordinary art collection, which included Leonardo da Vinci's Codex Atlanticus and the famous Roman statue of Tiberius/Pompey. It represents one of the highest examples of Lombard Rococo, with 18th-century extensions designed by the architect

[Castellazzo di Bollate](wikipedia.org "Castellazzo (Bollate) - Wikipedia) (Lombardy): A historic hamlet of the municipality of Bollate, on the outskirts of Milan, immersed in the Parco delle Groane. It is especially famous for hosting the monumental Villa Arconati (often called the "Versailles of Milan").

The climb to Castello di Carimate (in the province of Como) is a short but well-known steep section much loved by local cyclists. It measures about 0.9 kilometers with an average gradient of 5.7% and maximum gradients reaching 11.6%, starting from a minimum altitude of 240 meters to reach 289 meters.

A nice place to stroll.

I learned here that it's not the elevation gain that truly tires you, but the gradient