The lovely park of the Villa Taranto was created after the Second World War by a retired Scottish army officer, a botanist who collected plants from around the world to grow in this English landscape-style garden park. More than 20,000 plant varieties — flowers, trees, shrubs, and water plants — native to this region and to places as distant as the Amazon rain forests thrive in this beautiful setting overlooking lake views, making Villa Taranto one of the most popular places to visit on Lake Maggiore.

It is a fishing village whose houses are built away from the coast and have doorways that face inward, along narrow streets, so as to prevent flooding in spring and autumn when there are high tides. It's a pleasant and atmospheric place to wander around. The few restaurants on the island specialize in lake fish dishes.

Rocca d'Angera is a Borromenean castle overlooking the lake at Angera, is a medieval fortified stronghold whose structure has been preserved almost intact. The castle was originally built by the Visconti family, rulers of Milan from 1277 to 1447, and frescoes in the Sala della Giustizia show Ottone Visconti's victory over Napo Torriani in 1277.

The hermitage was founded by a merchant who was shipwrecked in a storm while travelling on the lake , took refuge in a cave.

Feeling grateful for having survived, he ordered the construction of a tiny church dedicated to Saint Catherine in the area in 1195 . The complex was home to Augustinian monks in the 14th and 15th century. The 14th-century bell tower stands on a cliff which is perpendicular to the lake.

Colossus of San Carlo in Arona is a statue over thirty meters high located in the hamlet of San Carlo di Arona on the sacred mountain of the same name. It was commissioned by Federico Borromeo, archbishop of Milan, cousin and successor of Carlo, and was designed by Giovanni Battista Crespi. It has a masonry core, wooden and iron trusses, copper plate roofing, and bronze hands and heads. With its granite pedestal 11.5 meters high and the statue 23.5 meters high, the colossus seems to welcome visitors with a benevolent air, with a slightly bowed head and a severe appearance. With his right hand, he blesses the city and with his left, he holds the code of the acts of the Milanese Church. The symbol of the city of Arona is one of the largest statues in the world.

Palazzo Borromeo is located off the coast of Stresa and is a masterpiece of seventeenth-century architecture and engineering. The majestic building has a T-shaped plan with the main hall in the center, which is spread over two floors and is covered with a dome. Inside, you can stroll through sumptuously decorated and furnished rooms where, in 1797, even Napoleon Bonaparte stayed and admired paintings and tapestries by great artists including those of Pieter Mulier, known as the Tempest, but also copies by Raphael, Correggio, and Guido Reni. Not to be missed are the botanical gardens that house an incredible variety of exotic plants and are characterized by the large upper amphitheater.