LAKE MAGGIORE

In a few minutes the boat turns to berth on to the coat, to Baveno. The little town, of ancient origin documented since the beginning of the 11th century, is one of the major tourist spots of the lake. Among its monuments two important structures: the Parrocchiale of St. Gervasio and St. Protaso of the 12th-13th centuries, adapted in the 7th-8th century, with Romanesque bell and the octagonal baptistery, this too restored in the 18th-19th cent. With an elegant appearance, with a pleasant garden lake-front from which you enjoy an enchanting view onto the Borromeo Gulf and over the Lombardy lake shore up to the Laveno inlet, the little town boasts many illustrious guests. From Byron to Lamartine, from the Czarist Alexandra to Queen Victoria of England, from Wagner to Umberto Giordano - who composed the opera Fedora in the namesake villa - and to finish Churchill who is portrayed in some Parrocchiale watercolors. Baveno is what's more famous for the red granite cave, it opens onto the foothills of Mt. Camoscio (890 meters) at the back of the town, from which also rise the mineral water springs called "Fonti di Baveno".