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The little town, of ancient origin documented since the beginning of the 11th century, is one of the major tourist spots of the Laago Maggiore. Among its monuments two important structures: the Parrocchiale of St. Gervasio and St. Protaso of the 12th-13th centuries, adapted in the 7th-8th century, with Romanesque bell and the octagonal baptistery, this too restored in the 18th-19th cent. With an elegant appearance, with a pleasant garden lake-front from which you enjoy an enchanting view onto the Borromeo Gulf and over the Lombardy lake shore up to the Laveno inlet, the little town boasts many illustrious guests. From Byron to Lamartine, from the Czarist Alexandra to Queen Victoria of England, from Wagner to Umberto Giordano - who composed the opera Fedora in the namesake villa - and to finish Churchill who is portrayed in some Parrocchiale watercolors. Baveno is what's more famous for the red granite cave, it opens onto the foothills of Mt. Camoscio (890 meters) at the back of the town, from which also rise the mineral water springs called "Fonti di Baveno".
The name Piedmont comes from medieval Latin Pedemontium, i. e. "ad pedem montium", meaning "at the foot of the mountains": Piedmont, whose capital is Turin, is surrounded on three sides by the Alps, including Monviso, where Po river rises, and Monte Rosa. It borders France, Switzerland and the Italian regions of Aosta Valley, Lombardy, Liguria and Emilia Romagna. Its history was linked for centuries to Savoy dynasty: since 1046 Piedmont was part of County of Savoy, raised to Duchy of Savoy in 1416, evolved in the eighteenth century into the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia. The role of Piedmont for Italy's unification is comparable to the role of Prussia for Germany and his army was the engine of the unification process, ended with the creation of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861. The presence of Savoy in its territory bequeathed a large number of castles and residences. Lowland Piedmont is a fertile agricultural region, producing wheat, rice and maize and is one of the great winegrowing areas in Italy. The region contains major industrial centres: FIAT automobile plants in Turin, Ferrero's chocolate factories in Alba, tissue and silk manufactories in Biella, in Ivrea Olivetti was an important technology center, publishing in Turin and Novara.
