Novara Provincia di Novara
Water and economics
“Orta: the pastel colours of a watercolour, painted by some divine hand on a screen of silk, the peak of Sacro Monte rising high behind. The elegant promenade lined with villas; the silent piazza with its stately facades, veiled by the foliage of the chestnut trees. The island of San Giulio lies off shore; like the Mount of Dante’s Purgatory, it seems to float, suspended between the lake and the sky.” This is how Italian writer Piero Chiara describes Lake Orta, one of the jewels of the province of Novara; an inspiration to many writers and poets, and a long established and elegant tourist resort attracting visitors from outside Italy. The pearl of Lake Orta is the island dedicated to San Giulio, with its early Christian basilica containing a masterpiece of Italian Romanic art: the splendid ambo (an early form of pulpit) carved out of black marble from Oria and dating back to the 11th century.
Novara province is notable not only for its lake, but also for the landscape created by its rice fields and for its castles, each set among unspoilt hills and woods. Ticino National Park, located on the border of Piedmont and Lombardy, is the natural habitat of otters and herons, while in the Natural Conservation Area surrounding the Sacro Monte of Orta, the spiritual aura of one of Piedmont’s principal places of pilgrimage, dedicated to St. Francis of Assisi, is combined with the wonder of a protected natural setting, recognized by Unesco in 1984 as one of the World Heritage sites.
The section of the coast of Lake Maggiore lying within the borders of Novara province has some interesting towns, like Arona, dominated by the gigantic bronze stature of its patron saint, San Carlone. In this area of Piedmont, bordering Lombardy, agriculture and industry flourish: flowers are grown commercially here, while the key industries manufacture taps and valves for domestic and industrial use.Good food and wine abound. The grapes produced here are transformed into excellent wines, notably the Ghemme, a fragrant ruby red wine, the perfect complement to meat dishes or to the the tasty Novara cheeses. Among these Gorgonzola, produced in the town of the same name, is the best known; its inimitable sharp yet sweet flavour has made it a popular choice all over the world and a hugely successful export for Italy.
Information
Atl Novara - Azienda turistica locale
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Places
Villa Scott
The little manor house, one of the most important examples of Torino Liberty architecture, is linked to the name of Dario Argento who set his film, “Profondo Rosso” (“Deep Red”) here – perhaps his most emotional film and the one with the strongest visual effects.
Historical Wine Cellars in Canelli
The wine cellars – which hold ancient barrels perfectly lined-up – have brick arches, lowered large round arches connected to each other by tunnels that reach into the layers and strata of earth which have formed over the centuries.
La “Bollente” di Acqui Terme
This is an elegant, octagonal temple-structure inaugurated in 1879. This eclectic structure has a spring where sulfuric-salty-bromine-iodic water flows at a temperature of 74.5 degrees Celsius.
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People
Andrea Lee
“I married a man from Torino and we have started our family here. You fall in love with it gradually, it’s full of hidden, unknown things ready to be discovered, but filled with perversions as well. It has some very beautiful places…..”
Irene Grandi
“Torino is a fascinating place, filled with things to do, artistic and cultural movement…there’s always a show or a concert going on in some piazza. If only Florence was like this…”
Gerard Roero Di Cortanze
“There must be a psychoanalytic bond between Torino, Piemonte and myself. Every time I come to town, I feel at home, as if the doors to my own house were being re-opened. I have never lived in this city. Every time I’m here it is as if I put my foot on the fog of a ghost, face to face with my past. Torino is my imaginary life, a double retrospect, a flashback…”
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