LAKE MAGGIORE

Trompe l’oeil frescos, five centuries of pictorial cycles, spontaneous and organised murals: colour is everywhere in and around Laveno Mombello. Nestled against the mountain-side, with a sheer drop below to the lake, the Eremo di Santa Caterina del Sasso hermitage can be reached down steep steps from the group of houses above, with a lift dug out of the rock, or via the lake. A large number of pictorial cycles inside and outside the church walls cover a period from the fourteenth to the nineteenth century. The view out over the lake is unforgettable.

Finds from the Iron Age, evidence of the Ice Age, monuments of industrial archaeology, dolls from the eighteenth century to date: lower Lake Maggiore. One of the last examples of flooded forests in Lombardy, the Oasi della Bruschera alternates stretches of water with paths through trees and rushes. With its five factory buildings, built between the twelfth and seventeenth century, the Rocca di Angera stands guardian of the Lake Maggiore.