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 It is impossible to fix in a single image the great natural and architectonic variety of the Azure province. Lakes, mountains, rivers and cascades. And again, flowers, gorges, paths and plateaus with breathtaking views. And where nature leaves space for the creativity of man, here are the palaces and hotels that recreate late nineteenth century Art Nouveau, the time when the “Grand Tour” on the Lake was one of the “highlight” moments of the European beau-monde. Illustrious and cultured personalities have strolled along the lakeshore, lived in the patrician villas or chosen Lake Maggiore, Lake d’Orta or the Ossolane valleys as their favoured vacation land. In addition, what about those small mountain towns that keep the savour of the traditions of the past unaltered, or the unique and unrepeatable fascination of those jewels of nature, architecture and life that are the Borromeo isles? Sovereign Reign, crowning this corner of Eastern Piedmont, the Lepontine Alps mountain chain where, uncontested, rises the peak of Monte Rosa .
Physical confines of the Azure province that ideally thrusts toward Novarra where the southern edge of Lake Maggiore embraces the city of Arona, dominated by the Colossus of San Carlo on one side and, on the other, by Lake d’Orta, the picturesque medieval town and the island of Orta San Giulio.
 A journey that starts from the banks of Lake Maggiore following the flow of the waters that move calmly in the basins of the lake, but originate impetuously from the summits of Verbano Cusio Ossola. The water takes control of nature, always shaping it to form different scenes. From Lake Maggiore we climb up toward the Toce valley, and, immediately, we meet the Dormelletto Reserve and then, further north, the Fondotoce Reserve: swampy groves of reeds, where the most diverse species live, conserving a high level of biodiversity intact. Natural paths also allow the discovery of the most hidden spots, almost “spying upon”, without disturbing, this natural uniqueness, where man can only pass-by to know, learn and conserve.
The Toce River laps the entire Ossola valley with its calm flow forming oxbows and defining a kind of break up of the water that is the origin of life and source of natural energy. Following its movement, we cross the Ossolane valleys until reaching the Toce Cascade: 143 metres of giddy height, making it the second cascade of Europe. In this way the indisputable power of the water becomes a dominant protagonist of one of the most enthusiastic spectacles that nature can give us. But if the Toce Cascade expresses all its impetus in a single great leap, it is the Bognanco Valley that offers the highest number of cascades of the entire Ossola valley. It is called the “valley of 100 cascades” precisely defining this particularity in the flow of the waters, as pure as well as beneficial, allowing an intense spa activity between May and October. Not less vivid, if not so impetuous, the Alpine Lakes, small oases trapped among the peaks: the Antrona Valley is a magisterial example with the Cingino, a true mirror of the surrounding Alpine nature. But the high lakes, in which Verbano Cusio Ossola is rich, is part of that fundamental break that interrupts travelling among the valleys, following one another. 
Water, a natural resource with many benefits. In the Premia Municipality, in the Antigorio Valley, a pontificate bull of Pope Paolo IV in 1556, mentioning “a river of hot water”, documents the presence of a source of hot water. A precious natural heritage whose benefits can be enjoyed today at the “Premia Spa”.
But if water is source, mirror, impetus and vital energy, it is the erosion of the fusion waters of the glaciers that have created those particularly evocative natural crevices: the Orridi. Premia, Crodo and Cannobio: 3 localities very different from each other but having in common the presence of gorges created in a remote era and still today real and proper “medals” to the merit of nature that, precisely in the gorges, reveal an ability to recreate themselves on their own and offer a spectacle far greater than any engineer could produce.
The Lepontine Alps surround the entire Verbano Cusio Ossola in an embrace made of gentle slopes, wild valleys and severe and impervious peaks.
High parks of archaeological and mineralogical interest, other than naturalistic. Like the splendid landscape scenario of the Devero Alp and the Veglia Alp, where the
Valgrande is, where the hand of man disappears ,unless to follow the rules set by fauna living together with rare colonies of species in extinction (like the Royal Eagle). But also where the remains of the prehistoric past have left such signs that archaeological research and study are a continuous “work in progress”. The theatre of historical events has seen man cross it and live in it intensely during the Resistance, the stretch of land today is without stable settlements and other modern infrastructures: it is the largest wild area in Europe. The signs and traces of the past remain with kilometres of paths to walk along with inquisitive and maximum attention. There the rays of the sun penetrate the thick beech woods and make the crystalline waters of the many streams that cross them gleam. 
And the Rosa mountain group, with the 4634 metres of its highest peak, the Dufour Point, towering not only over the pearl of the Anzasca Valley, Macugnaga, renowned tourist and skiing site, but also standing out as undisputed lord of the Ossolani mountains.
Monte “Rosa”, because at dawn and dusk its peaks are tinted “pink”, but its name comes from the ancient Valdosta dialect word “rouja”, meaning glacier. On Rosa, on the Gnifetti Point to be precise, the highest Alpine refuge in Europe, the Capanna Regina Margherita, rises at an altitude of 4554 metres. Other than welcoming climbing alpinists, it is also the site of a meteorological station and research centre on the effects of high altitudes on the human body. The Capanna was inaugurated on August 18th 1883 and cost 17,094 lire and 55 centesimi: the legend tells that everyone contributed a lira on inauguration day, including the works manager.
But if the Monte Rosa chain dictates the rules for the peaks, Mottarone is the nearest and “easiest to hand” destination for day tourism. More than a real and proper mountain, Mottarone is a hill massif between Lake Maggiore and Lake d’Orta from whose rounded heights a grandiose view can be enjoyed that ranges 360° from the Marittime Alps to Monte Rosa, and sweeps across the Padana Plain and the Seven Lakes, straddling Piedmont and Lombardy. Mottarone is called “the mountain of the two lakes”, precisely because of its position,
"However fantastic and marvellous it may be and is, the Bella Isle is extremely beautiful”. This is how Charles Dickens described one of the jewels of Lake Maggiore. But it is the Isles as a whole that represent the uniqueness of Verbano and Lake d’Orta. Each with an undeniable and unequalled singularity in combining nature and architecture. Where the land emerges from the lake, man has respected its conformity, donating history and clever naturalistic choreography. This is the case of the Borromeo Palace and its gardens.
Also singular, however, is the mastery of the gardeners who vivify the Gardens of the Madre Isle, a corner that seems wild but is scientifically tended. Not gardens but the daily life of fishermen animates the island that bears their name in the Borromeo Gulf of Lake Maggiore: the Isola dei Pescatori.
And it is the isles that are also the protagonists in Alto Verbano: the Cannero Castles, three rocky isles upon two of which are the ruins of ancient fortifications. They were constructed between the XI and XII centuries and called “Malpaga”. The Blue Flag of the Legambiente (Environmental League), flies over the lake waters surrounding the isles, bearing the name of the Cannero Municipality, the small town noted for its great tourist “appeal”. They are called the “Cannero Castles. They are in the Cannobio Municipal area and the Alto Verbano municipal area at the border with Canton Ticino that, together with its historical, commercial and tourist nucleus, is one of the most sought-after holiday destinations by foreigners. 
And finally, in Cusio, the Orta San Giulio Isle, dominated by the Basilica and the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery, a convent of cloistered Benedictine nuns. A little less than 300 metres long where silence reigns supreme. Opposite, the ancient town of Orta, a fascinating place whose alleyways are trodden by thousands of visitors in every month of the year. If the gardens are one of the attractions of the Borromeo Isles, the luxuriant natural explosion of the traditional Gardens of the Lake Maggiore Villas are not to be undervalued. Villa Taranto, for example. The fame it enjoys throughout the world does not exonerate even the most hurried from spending at least a couple of hours there. The look of the Villa Taranto garden today is not the result of spontaneity but the outcome of a laborious development shaped over time by Captain McEacharn in 1931.
Entering the gardens of the Villa is like making a journey through distant countries. From Verbania to Stresa, for a pause in the Villa Pallavicino Park, which winds around a villa built at the end of the 19th century. The breathtaking panorama and the particular care in managing the space make it an ideal place to spend leisure time in harmony with nature.
The Alpine Botanical Garden, on the hills overlooking Stresa, dominates the entire Borromeo gulf at one glance. The specialisation of this natural area consists of botanical species coming from the alpine and sub-alpine plain of the Alps.  The Sempion Tunnel, a record tunnel, not so much for the present, but for what the past represents today: 19,803 metres connecting Domodossola to Briga, inaugurated in 1906 by the then King of Italy Vittorio Emanuele III. Among others, the celebrated Orient Express went through the Sempion tunnel, connecting Venice, via Milan, to Paris. A journey that the “great men and women” of culture have taken and was the scene for one of Agatha Christie’s “cult” novels.
The great voyagers of the last century had no means other than the train to travel comfortably across Europe and reach the capital that, at that time, was the pulsating heart of art and literature of the Old Continent.
A brief mention of rail transport that sees, instead, in the “Vigezzina”, also called the “centovallina”, as its most characteristic local expression: from Domodossola to Lucarno through the Valley of the Painters, or rather the Vigezzo Valley, in function since 1923, and still today a “diamond point” in folklore, in a specific travelling context. The Vigezzina never interrupted its connection service even in the difficult period of the Partisan Republic of Ossola, and today is a different way in which to discover the natural landscape beauties of the Valley. 
The Vigezzo Valley deserves a pause to admire the wide plateau, traditions and culture: a few words to describe one of the most beautiful of the Alpine valleys, the natural link between the Sempion Pass and the Gotthard. At the centre of the Valley, called the Painters’, rises the Santa Maria Maggiore, founded before the year 1000. But it is the “chimneysweep” tradition that has made Santa Maria Maggiore noted throughout the world. The Chimneysweep Museum is dedicated to this tradition, where the tools of the trade are kept and photographs and testimonies are displayed that portray the hard life of these professional workers of the past and recreate the tradition of this work during an evocative event that calls chimney sweeps to the valley from all over. Another evocative “corner” of the Vigezzo Valley is Re, a small mountain town where a majestic Sanctuary rises, bearing witness to the cult of the Madonna del Sangue.
Descending to the lake we travel through the Cannobina Valley, where ancient paths developed across tracks of different lengths and difficulty have been restored. These tracks, called the “Circuito di San Carlo”, allow moving through the entire valley on foot as a traveller would have done in the time of San Carlo Borromeo, crossing modern vehicle roads only sporadically.
As the hinge between the Padana plain and the Alpine Arc and then, in the Novara area, the Vergante hill zone, a stretch of land still almost intact where three special natural reserves have been created: the Sacro Monte di Orta, mount Mesma and the Torre di Buccione Hill. Art, faith and history blend with nature in a jubilee of colours and sensations.
The Verbania hinterland is discreetly fascinating. Premeno is among the best known localities of the zone because at the beginning of the 20th century several holiday camps for children were set-up, hosted in the villas of the place. A few kilometres from Premeno, Pian di Sole, a skiing station but also a panoramic setting facing the Lombardy shore of Lake Maggiore.
Behind Verbania, a Valley leads to nature across wild paths: the Intrasca Valley, destination of those who love sport, hiking across the plateaux.
The natural fascination of the landscape, together with the traces of millenniums of history: we are in Mergozzo, a small town that has kept the savour of its traditions unaltered. The prehistorical finds, identified on the terraces overlooking the town, and its lake, show how man settled into this zone at least 5000 years or so ago.
Going back up toward the Ossola valley we reach Vogogna, some time ago a compulsory passage on the road to the Sempion. The Town had relevant military importance in ancient times, precisely because of its strategic position. Between the XIV and XVI centuries, Vogogna prospered under the leadership of the Visconti and the Borromeo, enriching itself with civil and military constructions. Strongholds of that glorious epoch, the Visconteo Castle and the Pretorio Palace.
Verbano Cusio Ossola, as the stage of events that have marked past, modern and contemporary history: the traces of historical singularity are in the Cadorna Line, built between 1911 and 1916 to protect the Italian territory from a hypothetical German attack through neutral Switzerland. A complex defensive system that extends from the Ossolane valleys to the Orobici passes. Roads, mule tracks, trenches, artillery positions. And more, command centres and structures that, in today’s jargon, would be called logistical bases.
From history experienced on the field ,to the history of sacred art: the Sacri Monti. The Sacro Monte Calvario, inserted by Unesco in 2003 into the “Heritage of Humanity” list, keeps watch over Domodossola. In 1656, two Capuchin monks chose the Mattarella hill that overlooks the main town, Ossolane, to host the Sacred Mountain and the Calvary. But it was the presence of Antonio Rosmini, who lived here as protagonist in the calendar of his difficult time and permeated this place with sacred culture.
Rosmini spent his existence demonstrating that faith and reason are, as Giovanni Paolo II wrote in the Fides et Ratio encyclical, “the two wings with which the human spirit rises toward the contemplation of the truth”. Rosmini’s teachings, in addition, have also created a school in Stresa, today home of the International Library of Rosminian Studies. 
A second Sacro Monte of the Verbano Cusio Ossola, inserted by UNESCO in the heritage of humanity list, is the Sacro Monte of Ghiffa (or Sacro Monte of the Santa Trinità), built between the XVI and XVII centuries. Today, the Sanctuary includes three chapels dedicated to different biblical subjects and three other smaller chapels that act as oratories.
Excellent examples of sacred art, they are still in the Monumental Church of Baceno, in the Antigorio Valley, dedicated to San Gaudenzio (first Archbishop of Novara); while the windows of the parochial church of Crevoladossola are just as artistically fascinating.
Art as the expression of nature, as history shaped by elements created by man, as a hymn to sacredness. Different perspectives that interweave to the point of creating a kaleidoscopic framework of a truly singular geographic reality. But there are also the events, forever new or renewed in their tradition that increases the cultural richness of the territory. From the international character of the extremely celebrated Stresa and Lake Maggiore Musical Weeks Festival to the newest, but by now consolidated, Umberto Giordano di Baveno Festival. Playbills that have brought artists, operas, concerts, and plays to Verbano Cusio Ossola and have written a page of its cultural history on the pentagram of the Azure province.
Personalities who have performed once but who have left an indelible mark: B.B. King, Ray Charles, Michel Petrucciani, to quote just a few. Masters like Valery Giergev and Gianandrea Noseda, at the direction of international orchestras, who have made the notes of classical symphonic music reverberate from the stages of Verbano Cusio Ossola. But staying in the Azure province also means, “recharging their batteries” for artists: Arturo Toscanini chose the San Giovanni Isle as the place in which to rest from the efforts of his tours. Gianni Rodari, Omegnese doc, carried Cusio in his heart, wherever he went. Umberto Giordano made Villa Fedora, in Baveno, other than a meeting place with his “colleagues”, the inspiration for the works he composed.
The musical festivals develop between the lines and spaces of the pentagram, but the history of the territory is written on blank pages. A publishing panorama revealed as so conspicuous as to deserve its own space; this is how the “Fabbrica di Carta” was created, an event that, at eleven years from its beginning, continues to grow, developing, year after year, thematic festivals that demonstrate a literary vivacity in continuous evolution. Not less effective, the message of another festival, spokesman for the literature of the mountain: LetterAltura. A real and proper festival, able to include within it, other than literature, also journeys, adventures, meetings, workshops and trips. Music, publishing, cinema: the Premio Grinzane Cinema is held in Stresa, every year, able to attract well-known faces of the big screen to the Pearl of Lake Maggiore for a blend of culture and worldliness. Still in Stresa, the Italo-Swiss Cinematographic Meetings, for young directors with the cooperation of“ Swiss Film” and the “Turin, Piedmont Film commission”. Another element of the Premio Grinzane, on the banks of Lake d’Orto, is the “crime novel”, with awards for the best national authors, among meetings, conventions, international guests and discussions.  A chapter in itself of the culture of the territory is dedicated to the Walser people, of German origin who migrated from the High Vallese toward Italy, Liechtenstein and Austria. No shared explanation exists about the causes of the movement of these people. What is certain, is that there are many of them in Verbano Cusio Ossola, colonies where the Walsers settled with their language (a kind of archaic German), architecture and traditions. From Macugnaga, where the ancient village, the museum house and the Guia gold mine can be visited, as well as Salecchio, from Ornavasso to Campello Monti, without forgetting Agaro and Formazza, with the testimony of the Casa Forte: traces of a “difference” integrated to such a point as to become itself the characteristic of the places and the community.
Also the appointment with the Omegna Fireworks Display that explodes in all its fascination during the San Vito festivities in the calendar of events of Verbano Cusio Ossola, an outburst of lights that illuminates the gulf of the main Cusio city in August.
The light created by the colours of flowers is then the leitmotif of two festivals in which flowers are the protagonists: the Corso Fiorito and Camellia Exhibition in Verbania. Two appointments, synonyms of the pulsating Verbano Cusio Ossola floral garden centre activity, so much so as to award the Verbano camellia the title of “flower symbol” of the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics.
But a mention is also due to the Arona Sample Fair, a display tradition that, on the threshold of 50 years since its debut, is able to renew itself to such an extent as to attract thousands of visitors every year from the entire North of Italy. 
A journey to command respect, however, cannot leave aside the discovery of wine and gastronomy excellences that, in Verbano Cusio Ossola, sees the blending of the tastes of the lake and the Alpine valleys in a “unicum” of several savours: the fish of the lake, on one hand, and the mountain traditions expressed with honey, cheese, salamis, wines, and medicinal herbs on the other. And a showpiece: the Bettelmatt, an authentic outsider of high altitude dairy products that deserves the crown of “king” among hill country cheeses.
Enjoyment as a predisposition for welcome is a natural consequence in a context where the simplicity of the mountain refuges or farm holidays contrasts, without strident conflict, the evident majesty of the Lake Maggiore Hotels. Welcome and professionalism for congressional Tourism that, for years, has been an important chapter in the culture of hospitality of the territory. International companies from every sector choose this corner of Eastern Piedmont as the favoured place for in-depth business conferences in the most diverse sectors.
A territorial specificness, never banal, also in its simplest manifestations, such as handiwork and crafts. The treatment of wood is typical of the Strona Valley. Certainly not a rarity you might think, looking at the mountain context. Instead, in the Valley a real and proper symbol has been created out of this simple tradition: the wooden “Pinocchio”, by now considered the colour-bearer not of Collodi’s city but this corner of Cusio, also the homeland of Made in Italy design. In addition, hiding another really unexpected “pearl” at first glance: the most popular saxophones for world jazz artists, and not only, are in fact produced by craftsmen in the Strona Valley.
The journey in Cusio deserves, however, another pause, dedicated to the housewives district. Objects of daily use present in all the kitchens of the world, from homes to the super accessorised command centres of restaurants. Pots and pans that dictate the rules of practicality and most refined design in a sector that finds its productive motor in Cusio, as well as the tradition of its origins. 
In moving along the roads of Verbano Cusio Ossola you cannot help but notice the quarries from which the most diverse and yet valuable stones are excavated. One example, is the Candoglia Quarry of the “Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo” from which the marble used to build the Milan cathedral is today still being excavated and thanks to which its conservation and restoration continued. From Candoglia to Milan, to transport the marble, in the past with the rivers Toce, Ticino and finally the Navigli; THE MARBLE ROUTE, a tradition now relived in an event that revisits this ancient journey.
This tour concludes in the most satisfying way for those who love to live in the open air and enjoy nature through sport, starting from the welcoming camps that with the alpine refuges, farm holidays and bed and breakfasts complete the rich hotel and extra-hotel tourism. Because the possibility of practicing any discipline is certainly not lacking here. Verbano Cusio Ossola might represent a kind of vademecum for sport: from simple walks along the excursion paths to more committed trekking in altitude; from free climbing to horseback riding; from sailing to canyoning; and from canoeing to golf. Winter sports deserve a special mention: the Neveazzurra district offers 150 kilometres of possibility even when snow is scarce thanks to a system of artificial snow. 7 skiing stations and 50 ski-lifts to content the lovers of descent skiing and cross country skiing, snowboarders as well as ice-skaters or the lovers of alpine skiing or snowshoe walking. All in all, a real paradise where only one rule reigns: laziness is forbidden.
Nature, art, culture, wine-gastronomy and sport: these are the secrets of a territory ready to be explored.
Testi: Cristina Pettenuzzo
Immagini: Giancarlo Parazzoli
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