Lake Maggiore

Lake Maggiore, with its views of sheltered water and closed to the north by the Alps, with the countries that follow one another incessantly and with the wonderful Golfo Borromeo which dominates it, was for centuries place and source of inspiration for scholars, artists, musicians and writers from whole Europe who made it goal of the Gran Tour in the nineteenth century. But, thanks to its strategic position between Italy and Switzerland, at the opening of the Simplon road before, and the international railway line then, Lake Maggiore acquired also a great political importance over the centuries.