This is a town on the shores of Lake Maggiore. After being to Como and Garda previously this has a very much more tranquil, quieter feel to it. Laveno is a sleepy little place but pleasing on the eye, with a good selection of bars and restaurants, a little marina, good supermarket and home to a famous cable car that takes you up 1000 metres to the top of Sasso del Ferro. The views from the top are stunning. It takes about 20 minutes slowly climbing up the side of the mountain in an open top bucket. Two of you just stand in it and take in the views as you gently climb up, very nice thing to do. At the top there is a proper restaurant and a snack bar/cafe if you just want a beer.
On our second day here we took a ferry across the lake to a town called Intra. From here several ferry services take you to some of the islands on the lake and to other town destinations. We decided to take a walk to see the botanical gardens at Villa Taranto, takes about 15 minutes from the ferry, and what a delight they were. Created by a scotsman, who emigrated to Australia and then ended up in Italy, it’s a wonderful collection of trees, shrubs and flowers from around the world. There are some really eye catching displays of colour and beauty.
After that we had a light lunch and a drink at a lakeside cafe/bistro, and then on the walk back to the ferry we stumbled upon a lakeside beach, which was very welcome given we were feeling pretty hot at this stage.
Final day in Laveno we found a nice lakeside beach just a 15 minute walk from where we were staying so decided to take a picnic and have a nice chilled out day swimming and sunbathing. Overall a very relaxing few days in a very beautiful part of Italy.
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