The Lago Maggiore Express

It’s been a busy week! After a relatively relaxed first week, school is now in full swing and thus our lessons and our homework have increased in difficulty. Just when I think I'm getting a good handle on the language, my teachers apparently come to the same conclusion and thus start speaking faster and in more complicated ways. Anyway, as a result, I’m just now getting around to putting up some pictures from a trip some of my fellow students and I took last weekend on the Lago Maggiore Express.

Looking NW from the Pallanza peninsula toward the Pennine Alps and the Monte Rosa massif

First, here’s a little info on the lake itself. The northernmost province of the Piedmont region of Italy is known as Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, and it is dominated, both geographically and economically, by Lago Maggiore. About 130 square miles (with an average depth of more than 500 feet), the lake has been a major agent of both trade and conquest throughout its history. Several major navigable rivers find their headwaters in the lake, and the region as a whole is one of the most popular tourist sites in Italy, especially for those from neighboring vicinities. Promoted both by the Verbano-Cusio-Ossola province and by the individual towns, the Lago Maggiore Express (via train and ferry) is without a doubt the best way to get a quick and relatively cheap overview of the area.

The Saturday market in Domodossola

Although it starts out a little south of us in Arona, we joined up with the Express here in Verbania and took the ferry back south around the Verbania-Pallanza peninsula to Baveno across the lake. From there, we went by train to Domodossola, one of the major towns in the Verbano-Cusio-Ossola province. The city is at the height of its activity on Saturdays with the primary area of attention being the weekly market in the Piazza Mercato, a tradition that apparently dates to the tenth century. We didn’t know this, of course, until we arrived so trying to navigate our way through a sea of people shopping for clothing, jewelry, and other assorted items was a bit of a task. Still, the town was lovely and had it been a little quieter, probably would have been very much in keeping with the peaceful alpine setting surrounding it.

A tiny mountain hamlet on the way to the Val Vigezzo, captured from the train

After about an hour in Domodossola, we returned to the train station and headed northeast into the Val Vigezzo, one of the seven smaller valleys that branch off the Val Ossola where Domdossola lies. Famous for producing both quality chimneysweeps and also skilled landscape artists (it is also known as the Valley of the Painters), the Val Vigezzo offered some stunning views of the surrounding mountains. While in the valley, we stopped for about an hour in Re and visited the beautiful basilica there that houses a miraculous icon of the Virgin Mary.

The Sanctuary of the Madonna of the Blood in Re

The Val Vigezzo near Re

From Re, our train crossed into Switzerland and eventually ended its run at Locarno, on the northern shore of Lago Maggiore. After a leisurely two hour ferry trip south along the Lago, we returned to Verbania tired but very satisfied. The weather, sights, and scenery were well worth the nine hours and 30 €. If you’re ever in the Lago Maggiore region of Italy, I’d highly recommend it.

On the ferry back from Locarno