The city of Corbetta has a planned layout, which is typical of the towns of the Po Valley, with forested areas and cultivations occupying roughly three-quarters of the municipality's territory.

A noteworthy aspect of the town is that it is filled with many small streams, helping to shape the typical landscape of Corbetta; these rivers are now in the Parco Agricolo Sud Milano (Natural Preservation South of Milan).

Because of its proximity to the Naviglio Grande, Corbetta is a member of the Polo dei Navigli (i.e. the cultural area surrounding the aforementioned canal) instituted by the Province of Milan.

Corbetta exhibits the usual climate of Italy's Northern plains: cold winters and warm summers, with rainfall being most common in autumn and spring.

The municipality is in Climatic zone E. Corbetta's territory borders Magenta to the West, Robecco sul Naviglio to the Southwest, Cassinetta di Lugagnano and Albairate to the South, Cisliano to the Southeast, Vittuone to the East, and Santo Stefano Ticino and Arluno to the North.

Inside the borders, there are four frazioni (administrative subdivisions): Soriano, Castellazzo de' Stampi, Cerello and Battuello (the last two united in a unique frazione formally called Cerello-Battuello).

Milan, the largest nearby metropolis, is roughly 20 kilometres (12 mi) from Corbetta, but for the dispensation of services, the most important center could be considered the bordering settlement of Magenta.

It is quite certain, looking at glass crockery found in the old castle's well, that the first houses in Corbetta were built between the 7th and 6th centuries BC, when a small community of Celto-Ligurian tribes inhabited the area.

Archeological sites are visible near the local church, including a Roman altar dedicated to Jupiter and Mani (Sacred Matrons - divinities who were protectors of the family).

In 1275 Scarsio of Lanfranco from the Borri family, the general captain of Milanese noble exiles, was awarded many estates in the borough of Corbetta for services rendered to Otto and Matteo I Visconti.

At the end of the 13th century painter Simone da Corbetta created frescoes in the church and cloister of Santa Maria dei Serviti in Milan, now conserved in the Pinacoteca di Brera.

In the 1880s, with the peasants reduced to hunger from the "pendizzi" (debits but also "appendici" in contracts of rent) and from low wages, also exasperated because of ill-fated vintage years and unexpected deaths of silk worms, often the only source of maintenance for their families came down in public square against the landowners.

On 19 May 1889, in front of the Town hall of Corbetta (then situated in Via Cavour), the police officers shot on the crowd killing one person, injuring at least seven and arresting twenty-one.