Since we’re staying another night here we decided to take a tour around the area, so after breakfast we headed north to the town of Omegna, which is at the at the north end of the lake.  We continued northeast from there to Verbania, which is where a small arm of the larger Lago Maggiore juts out.

We stocked up on food for the next few days, then drove down to the lakeside and found a parking space right on the lake and across from a cafe.  We each got a cappuccino, and I logged onto their wi-fi for a bit. After our coffees we went for a walk along the lakeside  before returning to the campervan for lunch.  There are people swimming at the beaches, but the water must be very cold – there’s still snow visible on the mountains just to the northwest.

There’s a memorial to the two world wars right on the lakside with names inscribed of the men from the town that died in each.  It has a very moving sculpture on one side.

I saw some birds in the water – a male and a female, and I noticed two little ones swimming very near them as well.  When I looked closer I saw that there was at least one more riding on the top of the daddy’s back while mommy dived from time to time for food.  Colin thought they were Great Crested Grebe (we looked it up later in his ‘Field Guide to Birds or Britain and Europe’ and he was right).

After eating we back-tracked a bit so we could go down the west side of the lake to get back home.  It was a lovely drive – there were several very fancy-looking hotels that looked like they perhaps used to be the villas of very wealthy people, right across the road from the lake.  We agreed that this lake would be much more touristy in summer than Orta and are glad to have visited it before it gets too busy and crowded.

Back at the campground my laundry from yesterday was dry on the line, and we shortly acquired two neighbours – one on each side, although we still have lots of privacy with the hedges.

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