Cannero Riviera - Lake Maggiore & Lake Orta Travel Guide
Cannero Riviera, with its 1,200 inhabitants, is built on the alluvial fan of the little river Rio di Cannero. On the northern part of Lake Maggiore, and especially along its eastern shore, such alluvial fans are practically the only flat spots on an otherwise rocky shoreline.
Cannero faces due south, which gives it a particularly mild climate and earned it the nickname "Riviera". Unusual vegetation thrives in the sheltered gardens: cedars, lemons, oranges, olives, bougainvillea and even bananas.
In the late Middle Ages Cannero was fought over for decades by the Milanese families Sforza and Visconti. The three small islets just offshore - the Castelli di Cannero, or Castelli di Malpaga - are also part of this story.
Between the 12th and 14th centuries, the Ghibelline Mazzardi family used these islands as a base to threaten the whole region with raids and piracy. In 1414 Filippo Visconti destroyed the buildings, and in the 16th century Lodovico Borromeo had the fortress of La Vitaliano built, this time as a bulwark against the expansion of the Swiss Confederates.
The ruins on the islets are now a major tourist attraction.
Queen Victoria made Cannero famous in the 19th century, and Winston Churchill in the 20th.
Because the main road runs outside the little town, Cannero has kept its lovely shaded lakeside promenade and its compact old town with narrow lanes, arcades, restaurants and many small shops.
Cannero also has a pleasant beach for swimming, and every March an international camellia show draws flower lovers from all over the world.
The little mountain villages above Cannero Riviera are a special attraction. In Viggiona, as well as in Cheglio and Trarego (800 m), you can still find the village charm of a vanished farming world.
Narrow paths lead up through chestnut woods, across alpine meadows carpeted with narcissi and past numerous hidden, derelict huts (rustici) to the local mountain, Monte Carza, 1,116 m high. From there the panorama sweeps over Ticino, the Val Cannobina and the long beauty of the "Langensee", as Lake Maggiore is also known in German.
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