Baveno is a quiet, elegant health resort on the west side of Lake Maggiore, in the Borromeo Gulf, in the province of Novara. It is famous for its mineral springs and pink granite quarries. Amongst the many fine houses on the lakeside, two in particular are worth mentioning – the nineteenth century Villa Branca and the Villa Fedora, which was owned by the composer Umberto Giordano who called it after one of his most famous operas.

You can visit the Romanesque parish church which still has its eleventh century façade and twelfth century bell tower. The Renaissance baptistery is octagonal and has a baroque portico. The cupola has frescoes by local artists of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.