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Baveno, Piemonte
Coat of arms of Baveno

Piemonte · Verbano-Cusio-Ossola

Baveno

A lake town whose quarries supplied columns for Milan's cathedral and a major basilica in Rome.

Picked by Peter Benei

Letter to come

Why Baveno is on our list

It holds Bandiera Lilla.

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About the letter

Visiting

Best time
Apr–Oct
By car
1 h 8 min from Milan
By train
Station in the comune
Population
4,545

When to visit

Best · Apr–Oct

  • J10°
  • F12°
  • M14°
  • A17°
  • M21°
  • J26°
  • J28°
  • A28°
  • S23°
  • O19°
  • N13°
  • D10°
  • Best
  • Hot or crowded
  • Quiet
  • Mostly closed

Daytime air temperature, averages for 2020–2024. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.

Why come

Baveno sits on the west shore of the lake, twenty-one kilometers north-west of Arona. The town was occupied in the Iron Age by the Lepontii, an Alpine people of Celtic speech, before the Romans reached the lake, and its historic core still gathers around the raised church and its baptistery above the shore road. To the north-west, the granite quarries have cut into the hillside since the early sixteenth century, and the stone they produced left Baveno for Milan and Rome, built into a cathedral, a basilica, and a shopping gallery.

Along the water, a line of nineteenth-century villas marks the period when Lake Maggiore became a fixed point on the European Grand Tour, and from that same shore the Isole Borromee sit a ten-minute ferry away, close enough that the gulf reads as one continuous view rather than a lake and its islands. The town's quarries built landmarks elsewhere while its own shore stayed a place people came to look at the water.

How to get there

From Milan Bergamo (BGY), about 1 h 36 min by car.

Turin (TRN) is about 1 h 37 min away.

By car from the center of Brescia 1 h 58 min.

There is a railway station in the comune, so you can arrive without a car.

Coming from Milan, Turin or Genoa?

Coming by train into Milano Centrale? Baveno is about 1 h 8 min away by road.

Every town within reach of Milan Bergamo airport.

First time driving in Italy? Read our complete manual.

Baveno, Piemonte
Baveno, Piemonte

What to see

  • Chiesa dei Santi Gervasio e Protasio

    The Romanesque church and the older baptistery, fifth-century behind its later face, form the religious center of the historic core, raised above the road that runs along the water.

  • Cave di Granito Rosa

    The quarries lie north-west of town, cut into the hillside, the source of stone that traveled to two large churches and a shopping gallery.

  • Golfo Borromeo

    The gulf opens out between Baveno and Stresa, the water broken by three islands, Isola Bella, Isola dei Pescatori and Isola Madre, each reachable within minutes.

  • Ville ottocentesche

    Line of 19th-century lakeside villas built when Baveno became a Grand Tour stop, including Villa Henfrey-Branca and Villa Fedora.

From the guides

Where to eat

Not our picks, but places the guides put their name to: a Michelin star, a Gambero Rosso fork, a Slow Food snail, a Michelin Key for the hotels. Worth a table, a counter, or a night when you pass through.

  • SottoSopraRistorante

    A spot in the Michelin Guide, at SottoSopra.

Before you sit down: how to order at a restaurant, how to spot a tourist trap, what aperitivo is and how the Italian bar works.

Living here

Could you live here?

Baveno is a village with a town close by.

  • A village of 4,545, with Verbania (29,953 people) 15 min away for the shopping and a meal out. Our rule is a town within 15 minutes.
  • Verbania, a city of 29,953, is 15 min by car. Closer than our 30 to 60 minutes: handy for everything, so check the town still keeps a life of its own.
  • A station of its own. Trains are the overlooked way to get around Italy: no parking, straight into the center.

The rules come from our series Where to Move in Italy, written from the places we have lived: Part 1, The End of the Road · Part 2, The Small Town · Part 3, The City · Part 4, The Postcard · Part 5, The Other Half. The towns we would pick are in Part 6, The Best Towns.

We measured every town in the region on these rules, by its drive to Turin, the city we moved to: Moving to Turin and Piedmont.

How we choose a town, and every town by these rules.

  • Population 4,545, down 8.5% since 2015
  • Nearest city Verbania, 15 min drive
  • Train station in the comune
  • Nearest national health service hospital Verbania, 4 km as the crow flies · how healthcare works in Italy
  • Homes in the center: €1,550 to €2,200 per m² to buy, €5.40 to €7.20 per m² a month to rent

Weighing a move here? See the moving year.

All the numbers Common questions, designations, lists and sources.

More about living here

  • Commuter belt
  • Pharmacy in town
  • High school within a 30-minute drive
  • Full fibre reaches 35% of homes
  • Primary school in the comune
  • Earthquake zone 4, very low hazard
  • Milan Malpensa airport (MXP), 51 min drive, the nearest with scheduled flights
  • Regional capital Turin, 1 h 37 min drive

If you are moving here

Baveno

Who lives here

8% of residents are foreign citizens, most often from Romania, North Macedonia and Ukraine, against 9% across Italy. 27 of them come from English-speaking countries or western and northern Europe, mostly Germany. There are 317 people over 65 for every 100 children under 15, against 216 across Italy. 46% of homes have no resident, holiday homes and empty ones counted together, against 27% across Italy. Verbano-Cusio-Ossola province ranks 61st of 107 in Il Sole 24 Ore's quality of life ranking for 2025.

Health and schools

The nearest emergency room is in Verbania, 4 km as the crow flies. The nearest major one is in Varese, 26 km away. The nearest children's emergency room is in Varese, 26 km away. The nearest IB school is International School of Como, 46 km as the crow flies. The nearest school listed as international is European School Varese, 25 km away.

Information, not medical advice. Confirm with a professional.

Taxes

A home that is not your main one pays 1.06% a year in property tax, charged on the cadastral value rather than the price. A main home pays none unless it is in a luxury category. The town adds between 0.54% and 0.8% to your income tax, depending on your income, with nothing due on income under €10,000. 7% pensioner tax: this town is not in a qualifying area.

Information, not tax advice. Confirm with a professional.

What it costs

The average household in Piemonte spends about €2,240 a month, €580 of it on food, against about €2,170 across Italy. A family of three pays about €467 a year for water, on the Piemonte average.

What it costs to live in Italy.

Climate and risk

It is in climate zone E, on a scale from A, the warmest, to F, the coldest, and heating may run from October 15 to April 15, up to 14 hours a day, unless the mayor changes it. 3% of residents live in a zone the national maps rate high for floods, 11% in a high or medium one. 31% live in a zone rated high or very high for landslides.

These shares cover the whole comune, not any one street. Check an address on IdroGEO.

Moving from abroad? Which visa you need. Sources: ISTAT, the Ministry of Health, ISPRA, the Finance Ministry, the Ministry of Enterprise, Poste Italiane, the comuni, the IB, International Schools Database, Il Sole 24 Ore, Cittadinanzattiva.

Known for

  • RED GRANITE

    Pink-red Baveno granite worked since the 1500s, supplying columns for Milan's Duomo, Rome's San Paolo fuori le Mura and the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele.

  • GOLFO BORROMEO

    Western shore of the Borromean Gulf on Lake Maggiore, ten minutes by boat from Isola Bella, Isola dei Pescatori and Isola Madre.

  • GERVASIO E PROTASIO

    Romanesque parish church built around the eleventh century, set above the lakeside road beside a fifth-century baptistery, octagonal inside.

Common questions

What is Baveno known for?
Baveno is a lake town at 205 meters whose quarries supplied columns for Milan's cathedral and a major basilica in Rome.
Where is Baveno?
Baveno is a comune in the province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, in Piemonte.
What is the nearest airport to Baveno?
The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Milan Malpensa (MXP), about 51 min by car.
Can you get to Baveno without a car?
Yes. There is a railway station in the comune, so you can arrive by train.
How long is the drive from Brescia to Baveno?
About 1 h 58 min by car.
When is the best time to visit Baveno?
Best in Apr–Oct. August is the warmest month, averaging 28 degrees, and May the wettest, with about 20 rain days.
Which other towns are like Baveno?
Stresa, Bellano and Laveno-Mombello.
How many people live in Baveno?
4,545 residents, by ISTAT's count on 1 January 2025.
Is Baveno a good place to live?
By the rules in our Where to Move in Italy series, Baveno is a village with a town of 5,000 people within 15 minutes (Verbania, 15 min). The nearest city, Verbania, is 15 min away by car. The nearest national health service hospital is in Verbania, 4 km as the crow flies. Full fibre reaches 35% of homes.
Tags & data designations · numbers · sources

Recognized as

The numbers

  • Elevation: 205 m
  • Population: 4,545
  • Surface area: 17.1 km²

These figures were compiled from public directories: ISTAT, OpenStreetMap and Wikidata, and from the official listings of the guides named on this page. Town details change; verify with official sources before you travel.

The ranked lists

Lists Baveno appears in

All the ranked lists ›

Similar

Towns like Baveno

What all six share with Baveno: lake towns · between 3,000 and 10,000 people · hill towns

The letter

Baveno is on our list. Its letter is still to come.

We are writing about all 1,000 of these towns, one at a time, in a free letter: the photo, what is worth eating, and when to turn up. That is our mission. Sign up and you will be there when Baveno comes up. By Peter & Sophia, from Turin.

The nearest town we have written up is Camogli, 181 km away. Read its letter →

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About the letter

Paid plans, the moving year and the books are on the membership page.