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Clinging to the cliff vertically over the waters and with a view that spans the Borromeo gulf to Angera, the Sanctuary is a complex of buildings recently restored and opened for visits, that, according to the legend, originated as a monastery work of the beatified Alberto Bosezzo who, miraculously landed on these cliffs during a storm, he went into reclusion after a solemn vow to Saint Catherine, protectors of the seamen. Presently occupied by the Dominicans, the same order, that first erected it in the 14th cent., a tiny convent, later occupied by other religious orders. It houses important frescoes dating from the 14th cent. to the 17th cent. St. Catherine's Sanctuary is easily reached by lake with the boats departing from Stresa. With the low season the Santa Caterina del Sasso stop is skipped, so check the most recent schedule before going.
The Palazzo is an imposing massive structure with a central body of four floors and three lateral bodies where you find the suggestive subterranean salons "in grottoes". It houses a picture-gallery with the works of Gianbattista Tiepolo, Luca Giordano, Francesco Zuccarelli, a noteworthy gallery of Flemish tapestries from the 18th cent. and antique decors. The Palazzo and the gardens are open to the public from March 27th to October 24th, from 9.00 to 12.00 and from 13.30 to 17.20. From Isola Bella, going northwest we reach the Isola Superiore (Superior Island), about 300 meters long and 100 wide, which hosts, taking its name, an ancient and picturesque fishermen's village, of tiny winding, narrow streets. To be seen the Parrocchiale di San Vittore, of probable Romanesque origins, which to the visitor today appears in the restructured style of 1627. Baveno
Borromee Islands, Isola MadreFrom Baveno the boat departs once again for the last Island of the Borromeo archipelago, the Isola Madre (Mother Island), the largest, green and fragrant, which Flaubert defined "a terrestrial paradise". 330 meters long and 220 wide, it is still the property of the Borromeos as is the Isola Bella, and it is without doubt the most interesting from a landscape and botanical point of view. Originally called Island of San Vittore, then Renata in honor of the Count Borromeo that transformed it, and, from the 17th cent., with the present name, hosts the villa and the garden begun by Lancillotto Borromeo in the early 16th century. The park, called Botanical Garden (with beautiful views on to the lake), is dived into five sectors where they alternate and come one after the other: gardens, pergolas, groves, drives, baths, with splendid and rare examples of birds and fowls roaming freely. The villa's interior hosts restorations of epoch milieu and a collection of chinaware and livery.
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. Villa Taranto
The gardens are open to public from April 1st to October 31st, every day from 8.30 to 19.30 (the ticket office closes at 18.30). To the south of the park and to the east of the promontory of Castagnola rises in a super elevated the precious Romanesque church of San Remigio of the 13th cent. And then in the direction of Intra, the largest of the fractions that make up the Commune of Verbania, and major industrial center and commercial port of the lake. Here you find the ferry vehicle service that connects the Piedmont shore to the Lombardy, at intervals of half-hour. The city, that probably got its name from its position between the streams of San Bernardino and San Giovanni, preserves some 17th -18th buildings among which the baroque Palazzo Peretti and the ancient church of San Vittore, restored between the 18th-19th cent. The lake-front instead, with ample view onto Laveno and on to the rest of the Lombard coast, still preserves the characteristic 19th century metallic structure of the wharf. You have the choice of coming back on the same itinerary to Stresa, or Baveno to get to your car or the Trenitalia train, or to reach Laveno with the ferry boat, and then take the LeNord private train line to Milan. Text in part courtesy of www.navigazionelaghi.it
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