LAKE MAGGIORE

From the Island departing once again towards the coast to the north in the direction of Pallanza: on the left opens the alluvial plane of the Toce River, dominated by Mt. Orfano (794 meters), rich in quarries, that close the entrance of the Val d'Ossola, where the tiny lake Mergozzo, once part of the Verbano, stretches out. Opposite at the slopes of Mt. Rosso, you find the built area of Suna, whit the medieval lay-out of its ancient center while, at the far end of the lake-front, the 17th cent. Casa Cioia rises. A continuum of habitations, villas, gardens and hotels unite the little center to Pallanza, where you arrive after ten minutes of navigation from the Isola Madre. Here you find the office of the Commune of Verbania, that from 1939 reunites a series coastal localities (Fondotoce, Suna, Pallanza, Intra) and other tiny ex-Communes of the hinterland. A frequent visiting stop, but also site of various industrial activities, Pallanza also offers from its 19th century wharf, from the lake-front, and from the central piazza Garibaldi visible on the Gulf, splendid views: from Feriolo (on the right) to limits of the inlet, to Baveno and Stresa (opposite) dominated by Mottarone, to the islands. Very close to the coast, almost opposite the park with the Kursaal, you find the tiny Island of San Giovanni, already known in the 12th century for a church that rose there, where it can be seen, among the rich vegetation, the Palazzo built in the 17th cent. and then passed on to the Borromeo, that for some decades was the summer residence of Arturo Toscanini. At Pallanza, at the end of the important Via Cavour (known here with the name Ruga) with its 17th-18th cent. buildings, rises the Palzzo Viani-Dugnani restored in the early 17th cent. late-baroque style, where you find the Museum of Verbano and of the Landscape (built in 1909), and the collection of sculpture and moldings of Paolo Troubetzkoi, artist of Russian origin author of bust and monuments collocated in the nearby Piazza Garibaldi. To see as well the church called Madonna di Campagna (Madonna of the Countryside) at the slopes of Mt. Rosso, built on the pre-existing Romanesque building and reconstructed in Brahmanist forms in the 16th cent., with it's interior frescoes of Bernardino Latini and paintings of Camillo Procaccii. Still at Pallanza you have every year in September " a race of flowered wagons" international fame.