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If you drive to Italy via Switzerland, Lake Maggiore is one of the first sights you will see. It’s the second biggest lake in Italy and the most famous of the Alpine lakes. The area is peaceful and beautiful, but, unlike other areas of Italy, it is not the place to go if you want to visit cultural sites. It is, however, the ideal place for both a relaxing as well as an active holiday. There are plenty of opportunities to get some exercise walking in the mountains.
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The west coast
Stresa town is the largest resort on Lake Maggiore. North of the town is a lido (beach) from where you can take a cable car up Mottarone Mountain. From here you have a great view of the famous ski resort on Monte Rosa mountain. From Stresa, like many of the other Lake Maggiore towns, you can take a ferry to what is considered to be the top attraction of the Lake – the small Borromeo islands (Isole Borremee). Stresa also plays host to an international music festival in late August/early September – making this a good time to visit.
The Borromeo Islands
Until the 17th century, Isola Bella (the beautiful island) was not much more than a bare cliff rising up out of the water. But one day, Count Carlo III Borromeo decided to give his wife Isabella her own paradise island as a present. And so this naked cliff was transformed into a lavish cornucopia of Baroque landscape gardens with caves, waterfalls, statues, staircases, columns, elaborate hedgerows and, of course, a flock of strutting peacocks.
The other islands in this little group are Isola dei Pescatori and Isola Madre. Isola dei Pescatori (the fishermen’s island) has retained some of its original life, and you can still find restaurants and bars here that have not been designed solely with tourists in mind. Isola Madre resembles Isola Bella with fine palaces and grandiose gardens, although not quite as extravagant as those on Isola Bella.
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Baveno is north of Stresa. Queen Victoria took a brief holiday here in 1879, and since then English tourists have swarmed to the town year after year. From Baveno you can visit the little offshoot of Lake Maggiore, Lake Mergozzo, or you can take the trip up Camoscio Mountain past the characteristic pink granite quarry.
The town of Pallanza Verbania is the nicer part of Lake Maggiore’s industrial area. It has the mildest climate of all the lake’s towns, and inspired the Scottish soldier Captain McEachern to create a botanical garden here in the 1930s. The garden is called Villa Taranto and has an impressive selection of no fewer than 20,000 different plant species from all over the world.
The only sight worth seeing in Cannobios is the holy chapel Santuario della Pietà, which in 1522 was founded on the site where a picture of the Virgin Mary began, miraculously, to shed tears. But, with its ancient town centre full of small alleys and pastel-coloured lakefront buildings, Cannobio is still one of the most charming towns on Lake Maggiore, and it is easy to get to by boat and bus.
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The east coast
Maccagno lies on the northern part of the lake, and is one of the least commercialised places in the area. It is a pretty town and you can go for long walks in the mountains from here. You can, for example, take a trip to the town of Curiglia, and if you carry on 500 m up a mule track you get to the remote village of Monteviasco. No other roads lead this way and it is only recently that you have been able to access it by cable car.
A little south of Maccagno lies Luino, which is definitely worth a visit on Wednesdays, when you can go shopping at Lake Maggiore’s largest market. In the historic centre, you can also find good wine and food shops.
Laveno has a lot of strange things to offer. The main industry in the town is ceramics, and there is a ceramics museum with strange and wonderful artefacts, including a toilet bowl with its interior decorated with pastoral scenes! And stranger still, at Christmas time you can also see the underwater nativity scene. From Laveno, you can take the cable car to Sasso del Ferro, from where there is a wonderful view of the Alps.
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