Lake Maggiore
Sixty kilometres of water across two regions and Switzerland, with three islands in the middle.
Lake Maggiore is sixty-five kilometres long and straddles three territories: Piedmont to the west, Lombardy to the east and the Swiss canton of Ticino to the north. The Piedmontese shore is the one with the campsites, the gardens and the islands, and it runs from Arona up to the Swiss border beyond Cannobio.
The climate is mild all year because the body of water never cools down entirely, and that lets palms, camellias and azaleas grow within sight of the Alps. On the slopes above Stresa and Verbania are the historic gardens: Villa Taranto at Pallanza, with twenty thousand species, and those of the Borromean Islands.
The islands
There are three of them, off Stresa. Isola Bella is taken up almost entirely by the Borromeo palace and its terraced garden; Isola Madre is a botanical garden with peacocks; Isola dei Pescatori is a real village, with a single street and the fishermen's houses. Boats leave from Stresa, Baveno and Verbania all year round.
On the water you travel by the scheduled boats, which link every shore and in summer run as far as Locarno, in Switzerland: for that leg you need your papers. From Stresa a road climbs to the Mottarone, at fourteen hundred metres between the two lakes, and on a clear day you can see seven lakes and Monte Rosa from up there.
The campsites lie along the shore, nearly all with access to the water, between Arona, Baveno, Verbania and Cannobio. The further north you go the more the lake narrows between the mountains; at Cannero, just offshore, stand two castles on rocky islets, abandoned since the fifteenth century and restored not long ago.