LAKE MAGGIORE

From Intra the boat crosses the lake heading towards Laveno, at about 4 Km, located in the center of the gulf, the main part of this Lombard section of the lake,. The inhabitanted area develops a hemicycle, closed from the Point of San Michele and from Mt. Brianze, to the slopes of the Sasso del Ferro (1062 meters), where an outside cabin Poggio Sant'Elsa, splendid observation point over Verbano, the Alps, the pre-Alps and their lakes, can be reached,. The Laveno lake-front conserves a dignified an homogenous 18th cent. appearance; here the large complex of the Italian ceramic company, Richard Ginori, well-known manufacturer that at Laveno began its activity in the mid-20th cent, has its headquarters. Very folkloric are the many Lavenese celebrations of Ferragosto (mid-August Ascension): the night of the 15th the water of the gulf's town hosts a procession of boat allegorically illuminated with in the background an artificial fireworks show. On this occasion a good portion of the lake Maggiore Navigation fleet accommodate off shore so as to offer passengers the possibility of watching the show from a privileged viewpoint. To the south, a few kilometers from Laveno, seat of the Laveno Mombello Commune, is the tiny inhabited area of Cerro, where, fronting on to the Lake, rises the beautiful Palazzo Perabo', 16th cent. villa successively enlarged and seat, since 1870, of the "Civica Raccolta di Terragli" (Municipal Collection of Earth-enware) that displays an interesting documentation of local ceramic production beginning from 1880. Going out onto the gulf from Laveno one's eye spans out over the wide horizon of the Piedmontese shore: Stresa and Baverno, the gulf and the Borromeo Islands, the Castagnola Point, Intra and its confines that rise ending towards Trobasso, and the sequence of tiny centers that reach the Sasso Corbe' (1066 meters). The next stop is Ghiffa, another popular summer holiday site and headquarters of industrial activity in the textile sectors and floriculture, a shot distance from Ronco, in a super elevated position, the Sanctuary of the Santissima Trinita', a sort of tiny Sacred Mount with a church, three chapels and a Via Crucis going back to the 13th-14th cent.