Porto Valtravaglia Provincia di Varese Lombardia Italy
45.9607866,8.6765251

Porto Valtravaglia

Porto Valtravaglia is a comune (municipality) of c. 2,400 inhabitants in the Province of Varese in the Italian region Lombardy, located about 70 kilometres (43 mi) northwest of Milan and about 20 kilometres (12 mi) northwest of Varese. Porto Valtravaglia borders the following municipalities: Brezzo di Bedero, Brissago-Valtravaglia, Casalzuigno, Castelveccana, Duno, Ghiffa and Oggebbio. Dario Fo, Nobel Prize in literature of 1997, spent his childhood and adolescence here, and the little village played a central role in the development of his artistic specificity and production. In fact, it was the mix of people from different countries, working at the local, renowned blown glass factory and speaking an array of languages, that inspired the creation by Fo of the Grammelot, an original new idiom mixing a number of regional dialects. Listening to the stories told by the inhabitants of the village, typically fishermen, peasants, glass blowers and smugglers, then, introduced and trained him to the art of storytelling, of which he was a great representative. Eventually, it was again the local population, often busy with nightly jobs, who inspired one of his novels, "Il paese dei Mezarat" (the village of the bats).

Distance between:

Rome to Porto Valtravaglia 340 Miles / 547 Kms
Milan to Porto Valtravaglia 42 Miles / 68 Kms
Venice to Porto Valtravaglia 180 Miles / 289 Kms


Postal Code 21010


Population 2020

Total: 2330
Total Men: 1112
Total Women: 1112