La Varese Nascosta evolves from social media group to cultural association

La Varese Nascosta, a cultural association founded in Varese, has evolved from a Facebook group started in 2015 into a significant cultural community. Co-founded by Luigi Manco and Andrea Badoglio, the initiative aims to encourage residents to view their city through a lens of beauty and historical curiosity rather than complaint.

Over the past decade, the project has amassed tens of thousands of followers. The accumulated photographic and historical data has become a resource for academic research and university theses. To preserve this local memory beyond social media, the association developed 'Varese Sempre', an online journal designed to archive testimonies, anecdotes, and historical reconstructions of the city.