Elixir at Borducan is the liquor of Sacro Monte based on extract of orange and potherbs which was invented by Davide Bregonzio , a fighter under Garibaldi in 1872.
Its recipe has come down to us thanks to the tradition from father to son. Davide Bregonzio’s story is legendary: he fought at Marsala among the expedition of the One Thousand, wearing his red shirt in 1860, but he was from Varese by birth and an expert herbalist who produced a distillate called “ Ten herbs from Campo dei Fiori” at first.

During a travel to Algery he could appreciate the local oranges and when he came back to Varese he decided to invent a new liquor, The Borducan elixir, whose name meaning “orange” comes from the Arabian exotic places [...more]