Region: PIEMONTE
Province code: VB
Zip code: 28040
Phone area code: 0323
Elevation: 197 mt / 648 feet
VERDANIA
Verbania, in the province of Novara, is a tourist resort and principal town of the central valley of Lake Maggiore. It is made up of the two towns of Intra and Pallanza. Intra is an important industrial and commercial centre and one of the two terminuses of the only car ferry service on the lake (the other terminus is at Laveno). The landing stage was built in the nineteenth century and stands at the beginning of the lakeside road with its lovely view of the Laveno valley and the Lombardy shore. You can visit the eighteenth century Church of San Vittore which was built on the site of an earlier building.
Pallanza looks out over the Borromeo Gulf and is a well-known health resort set in luxuriant vegetation, with a view of Stresa and the slopes of Mottarone above. Villa Taranto, built at the end of the nineteenth century, sits in a large park full of exotic plants and decorated with springs and fountains. The eighteenth century Palazzo Dugnani in Via Cavour contains two art galleries, the Museo Storico Artistico del Verbano and the Museo del Paesaggio which has paintings and frescoes from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. The Romanesque Church of San Remigio, built in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, stands at the top of a promontory. The Church of the Madonna di Campagna, Romanesque in origin, with an eleventh century bell tower, was rebuilt in the sixteenth century and has a stone façade and a fine door.
Nearby is the health resort of Ghiffa, situated on the west side of the lake at the foot of Mount Carciago, and popular for its natural cures. About 5 km to the north-west of Pallanza is the health resort of Mergozzo, situated at the most westerly point of Lake Mergozzo where the Ossola valley opens on to Lake Maggiore. In the town you can visit the Romanesque Church of Santa Marta and the eighteenth century Church of the Assunta, which contains a Cross of Jerusalem in wood and mother of pearl. Lake Mergozzo is separated from Lake Maggiore by an alluvial plain created by the River Toce. It has a perimeter of 6 km and is popular with fishermen and water sports enthusiasts.
