The three-day event is the first of three in the World Rowing Cup series, originally launched in 1997.

This year’s two other stages are due to take place in Swiss city of Lucerne from May 27 to 29 and Poznań in Poland from June 16 to 19 with the overall World Rowing Cup winners determined after the third event.

In Varese, the men's single sculls has attracted a large field of 29 boats.

Croatia’s Damir Martin has remained in the single after finishing fifth at last year's World Rowing Championships in Aiguebelette in France.

He will be up against Cuba’s two-time global medallist Angel Fournier Rodriguez, sixth at the 2015 World Championships.

The second largest field is the women's single sculls with 24 entries.

Olympic champion Mirka Knapková of the Czech Republic will take on 2015 World Championship bronze medallist Jingli Duan of China.

Knapková and Duan will also face Jeannine Gmelin of Switzerland and Carling Zeeman of Canada, both of whom were A-finalists at the 2015 World Championships.

Italy is the biggest team with entries in 18 of the 20 classes.

Their flagship boat, the World Championship-winning men's four has retained the 2015 line-up - Marco Di Costanzo, Matteo Castaldo, Matteo Lodo and Giuseppe Vicino - and they will be racing strong crews from Canada, the United States and The Netherlands.

Also leading the way for Italy will be Francesco Fossi and Romano Battisti in the men's double sculls.

Fossi and Battisti will go up against Croatian brothers Valent and Martin Sinković, the two-time world champions. 

In the women's eight, world bronze medallists Canada will be up against Russia, who came fifth in 2015.

Both of these boats have qualified for this year's Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro and will race Germany and The Netherlands - two nations that still have a chance to secure Olympic berths at the last qualification regatta in Lucerne next month.