Saltrio www.comune.saltrio.va.it

Close to the Swiss border, it stands on the slopes of the Mount Orsa, Mount St. Elia and Mount Poncione d'Arzo. It was inhabited by the Romans such as the villages on the district. The Milan Roman walls (30 B.C.) was in Saltrio's stone, an ash-grey calcareous rock used until the Middle Ages as building material for columns, portals and walls.

At Salnova quarry, have been found in 1996 the bones of the first italian carnivorous dinosaur, known as Saltriosaurus.

To see:

- St. Giorgio's church, that towers above the village and the stone quarries. It was also the estreme defensive position of the Linea Cadorna in the Varese region, before the Como's fortifications. Situated below the church, there are some rooms used as victualling and weapons depots.

- SS. Protasio and Celso's church with inside the "Pietà", by Pompeo Marchesi.