The Corps of Italian volunteers from the province of Varese in 1866. The article intends to investigate the phenomenon of military volunteering that concerned the whole of Italy in 1866, looking at it from the perspective of the present province of Varese. The province hosted the 4th and 5th Regiments for a little longer than a month. An attempt has been made to calculate the number of the volunteers, compared with the number of those involved in the wars of 1859 and 1860, by dividing the province into areas to assess the territorial distribution of volunteers and the relationship between the towns and the countryside. A sociological profile of the participants has been outlined, briefly tracing the biographies of some of the volunteers.
Keywords: 1866, Volunteers, Garibaldi, Cadolini, Varese, Gallarate.