Dumenza

In this little town, from which takes its name the Valdumentina Valley, many famous artists were born. Between them, Bernardino Luini, Leonardo's pupil, Raffele Casnedi and Bartoleomeo Scappi, Pope Pio V's private chef, and author of the most important treatise on Renaissance cooking 'Opera dell’arte di cucinare'.

Its hamlet Runo is one of the Painted Villages of the Varese Province and its houses are frescoed with modern paintings.

Another 'artist' born in Dumenza was Vincenzo Peruggia, the thief of Monna Lisa. On the morning of Monday, 21st August 1911, Vincenzo, a 30-year-old Italian painter-decorator, in Paris since 1908, was able to get into the Louvre and out again, carrying the Monna Lisa stuffed under his workman's smock. Vincenzo kept the painting in his lodgings, hidden under a stove, for more than two years. Then, in late November 1913, he sent a letter to an antique-dealer in Florence, Alfredo Geri, offering to 'return' the Mona Lisa to Italy. On December, Peruggia arrived in Florence, by train, with the Mona Lisa in a wooden trunk, and he checked into the Albergo Tripoli-Italia on via Panzani (today, the Hotel La Gioconda). Here, in the presence of the antique-dealer and the director of the Uffizi, Peruggia lifted up the false bottom of the trunk, under which there was the picture. He was arrested later and imprisoned for 12 months; Vincenzo Peruggia died in 1947.

To see:

- at Runo, the Church of San Giorgio, with a XIII century romanesque bell tower
- at Trezzo, the Church and the Convent. From Trezzino, the stations of the Cross line a smooth stairway leading to the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption, between woods and meadows. From the churchyard, we have a nice view on the valley and the Lake Maggiore, in the distance.
- at Due Cossani, the farm-yard called "cort di rann" (frogs yard) with its fine portico