Send Gift Baskets to Busto Arsizio, Italy

Located 35 kilometers north of Milan in the region of Lombardy, in Northern Italy, Busto Arsizio is an Italian city and comune located in the southernmost part of the Province of Varese. Industrie and commerce are the main economic drivers in Busto Arsizio.

Although some claim a Celtic heritage, recent studies indicate the “Bustocchi” ‘s ancestors were Ligurians, described by Pliny as “wild,” “marauders and robbers” by Livy, and “unshaven and hairy” by Pompeius Tragus. Their skills as ironworkers made them highly desirable as mercenary soldiers. According to a local expert and historian Luigi Giavini, a remote Ligurian influence can be detected in the dialect Büstócu, which varies slightly from other Western Lombard varieties.

Old and young oak trees and black hornbeams covered the whole Padan Plain, which these first inhabitants used to burn. By slashing and burning, also known as “Debbie” in Italian, grapevines and cereals such as foxtail, millet, and rye were planted, or open spaces were created for huts with thatched roofs. The result was a busted (burnt in Latin), a new settlement that, to differentiate itself from the other nearby settlements, was named as follows: capsicum (again “burnt,” or better “arid”) for Busto Arsizio, whose name is a tautology; carulfì for nearby Busto Garolfo, cava for Busto Cava, later Buscate.

By crossing the Alps in successive waves, the Insubres contributed to the slow population increase around 500 BCE. After defeating the Etruscans, who controlled the area, they left some geographical names behind (Arno creek (not to be confused with Florence’s river), Castronno, Caronno, Biandronno, etc.).

An alternative route to the existing Sempione, Busto Arsizio, was created between Milan and Lake Maggiore, which previously used the Ticino river for navigation before the creation of the Naviglio Grande.

83,340 (2017)