The three historic colonies of Milano Marittima, Viale Matteotti and Viale Due Giugno - These are the three most valuable examples, from an architectural point of view, of the colonies that in the twentieth century were widespread in the holiday resorts of the Romagna Riviera.
The Varese colony was built, in a rationalist style, between 1937 and 1939 as a small town and could host about 800 children, divided between boys and girls in dormitories and refectories.
During the War the colony was used as a prison and later a war hospital for the German army. At the end of the conflict, it was used as a shed for allied aircraft.
The Montecatini colony was built between 1938 and 1939 and could accommodate 1500 children and 300 service people.
The structure occupied 68,040 square meters and had some notable architectural features, including a 50-meter high tower, which was destroyed by bombing during the Second World War.
During the war the colony became part of the airport that the allies had set up inside the pine forest. It then became the property of the State Monopoly which restructured it in 1952.
It remained in operation until 1998. The Marino Climatic Center, in the center of Milano Marittima, was built in 1927 by the Orchestral Society of Milan to host its members, but from the early thirties to the mid-nineties of the twentieth century it was managed by the Camillian Friars.