Itineraries to Listen to - Distretto Turistico dei Laghi

Sacred Mount of Orta

Overlooking the promontory jutting out into Lake Orta, where vegetation alternates with spectacular lake views, the path of the Sacro Monte winds through an environment that is sometimes garden, sometimes woodland, among the twenty chapels inside which the episodes of the life of Saint Francis are illustrated with sculptures and paintings in analogy with the life of Jesus. To find out more, listen to our podcast! “SOUL GARDENS: Ville e giardini, paesaggi dell’anima per il turismo sostenibile e consapevole” è un progetto per la promozione e la commercializzazione dei prodotti turistici regionali ai sensi della L.R. n. 14/2016, art. 21 - Annualità 2024/2025 - Ambito Territoriale 4

Alpinia Botanical Garden

The Alpinia Botanical Garden, which extends over approximately four hectares, is located on the slopes of Mount Mottarone, a pre-Alpine relief wedged between Lake Maggiore (Verbano) and Lake Orta (Cusio). To find out more, listen to our podcast! “SOUL GARDENS: Ville e giardini, paesaggi dell’anima per il turismo sostenibile e consapevole” è un progetto per la promozione e la commercializzazione dei prodotti turistici regionali ai sensi della L.R. n. 14/2016, art. 21 - Annualità 2024/2025 - Ambito Territoriale 4

Sacred Mount of Domodossola

Surrounded by the Ossola Alps and typical villages with slopes still cultivated with ancient vines, a short distance from Switzerland, the Sacro Monte winds from the village of Domodossola to the hill of Mattarella, a place with very ancient origins whose history is testified by Roman and Lombard finds of building materials, ceramics and tools and by a marble tombstone from 539 AD, reused in the curtain of the medieval castle, destroyed in 1415 by the Swiss. To find out more, listen to our podcast! “SOUL GARDENS: Ville e giardini, paesaggi dell’anima per il turismo sostenibile e consapevole” è un progetto per la promozione e la commercializzazione dei prodotti turistici regionali ai sensi della L.R. n. 14/2016, art. 21 - Annualità 2024/2025 - Ambito Territoriale 4

Botanical Gardens of Villa Taranto

In spring, summer and autumn, extraordinary splashes of colour transform the Gardens of Villa Taranto into the floral attraction par excellence of Lake Maggiore. In the 16-hectare park there are 20,000 plants of particular botanical value and over 80,000 flowering bulbs, while over 15,000 are the border plants that carpet the numerous flowerbeds. To find out more, listen to our podcast! “SOUL GARDENS: Ville e giardini, paesaggi dell’anima per il turismo sostenibile e consapevole” è un progetto per la promozione e la commercializzazione dei prodotti turistici regionali ai sensi della L.R. n. 14/2016, art. 21 - Annualità 2024/2025 - Ambito Territoriale 4

Museo Civico di Palazzo San Francesco - Domodossola

An old Franciscan church has been converted into three exhibition levels. The ground floor, also used for temporary exhibitions, has a large nave and two aisles separated by columns with sculpted capitals and frescoed bays. The first floor houses the Museum of Natural Sciences, with a selection of stuffed animals, a collection of minerals, an accurate stratigraphy of the Simplon region, a botany section, entomology, malacology, comparative anatomy, and some interesting organic finds. The second floor has been designed as a space to come into contact with art in its most intimate forms.  In the archaeological area, you can admire artefacts from different periods and cultures, from ancient Egypt, prehistory, Lepontian, and Roman times. Liturgical furnishings, stained glass, carvings, and polychrome wooden and stone sculptures from the Church of San Francesco represent sacred art. In the picture gallery, with paintings and drawings from the late 16th to the 20th century, there are several works by artists from the Vigezzo Valley, the "Valley of the Painters."