Piemonte · Verbano-Cusio-Ossola
Belgirate
A small Lake Maggiore village whose Chiesa Vecchia di Santa Maria has held its 11th-century Romanesque bell tower for nine hundred years.
- Best time
- Apr–Oct
- By car
- 1 h 12 min from Milan
- By train
- Station in the comune
- Population
- 473
Known for
CHIESA VECCHIA
Romanesque church above the village with an 11th-century bell tower, the parish of Belgirate until the new lakeside church was built in the 19th century.
REGATE 1858
Società delle Regate del Verbano, founded in Belgirate in 1858, recognized as the first yacht club in Italy and still racing each year.
MANZONI E ROSMINI
The 19th-century lakeside villas hosted Alessandro Manzoni, Antonio Rosmini, Guido Gozzano and several Risorgimento figures.
- J10°
- F13°
- M14°
- A18°
- M21°
- J26°
- J28°
- A29°
- S24°
- O19°
- N13°
- D10°
- Best
- Hot or crowded
- Quiet
- Mostly closed
Daytime averages, 2020–2024. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.
Why come
Belgirate sits on the west shore of Lake Maggiore, eleven kilometers south of Verbania and ten north of Arona. The village climbs the lower slopes of the Motta Rossa hill, where the medieval core takes its name from the curve, the bel girare, that the shore makes here. The Chiesa Vecchia di Santa Maria sits above the town on a terrace looking over the lake.
The Romanesque bell tower dates to the eleventh century, the body of the church to the twelfth; the small churchyard gives the panorama that has kept the village on Grand Tour itineraries for two hundred years. The Società delle Regate, founded in Belgirate in 1858, is recognized as the first yacht club in Italy and still races each year. The nineteenth-century villas along the shore hosted Alessandro Manzoni, Antonio Rosmini and the poet Guido Gozzano; Villa Carlotta, now a hotel, was where several Risorgimento figures met.
How to get there
From Milan Bergamo (BGY), about 1 h 40 min by car.
Turin (TRN) is about 1 h 40 min away.
By car from the center of Brescia 2 h 2 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? Belgirate is about 1 h 12 min away by road.
Every town within reach of Milan Bergamo airport.
First time driving in Italy? Read our complete manual.
What to see
Chiesa Vecchia di Santa Maria
Romanesque church on a terrace above the lake, with an 11th-century bell tower and a 12th-century body, holding the original parish until the 19th century.
Ville ottocentesche
Line of 19th-century villas along the shore, including Villa Carlotta and Villa Cairoli, hosts to Manzoni, Rosmini and Gozzano in the same period.
Lungolago di Belgirate
Long lakefront promenade between Arona and Stresa, with views across the lake to the Lombard shore at Angera and Ranco.
Società delle Regate del Verbano
Sailing club founded in Belgirate in 1858, recognized as the first yacht club in Italy, still running historic regattas on the lake each year.
The slow-trip planner
Building a trip? Find where Belgirate fits in a slow Italy circuit.
Answer six questions. We will shape a geographically coherent slow trip from the 1,000 Italian towns most travelers skip. Yours to save and share.
Living here
- Population 473, down 16.4% since 2015 (Italy's emptying towns)
- In-betweeni
- Pharmacy in town
- High school within a 30-minute drive
- Train station in the comune
- Nearest national health service hospital Angera, 8 km as the crow flies · how healthcare works in Italy
- Full fibre reaches 90% of homes
- No primary school in the comune's register
- Earthquake zone 4, very low hazard
- Milan Bergamo airport, 1 h 40 min drive, the closest of the 15 airports we time
- Regional capital Torino, 1 h 40 min drive
Could you live here?
Belgirate is at the end of the road.
- A village of 473. The nearest town of 5,000 people, Arona, is 21 min away: past our 15-minute rule, which makes this the end of the road.
- Verbania, a city of 29,945, is 28 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.
The button takes you to the letter's own page on Substack, where you leave your email. About the letter
Common questions
- What is Belgirate known for?
- Belgirate is a small Lake Maggiore village at 199 meters whose Chiesa Vecchia di Santa Maria has held its 11th-century Romanesque bell tower for nine hundred years.
- Where is Belgirate?
- Belgirate is a comune in the province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, in Piemonte.
- Which of the airports we measure is closest to Belgirate?
- Of the 15 airports we time the drive to, the closest is Milan Bergamo (BGY), about 1 h 40 min by car.
- Can you get to Belgirate 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 Belgirate?
- About 2 h 2 min by car.
- When is the best time to visit Belgirate?
- Best in Apr–Oct. August is the warmest month, averaging 29 degrees, and May the wettest, with about 19 rain days.
- Which other towns are like Belgirate?
- Iseo, Anguillara Sabazia and Varenna.
- How many people live in Belgirate?
- 473 at the 2023 count.
- Is Belgirate a good place to live?
- By the rules in our Where to Move in Italy series, Belgirate is at the end of the road: the nearest town of 5,000 people, Arona, is 21 min away. The nearest city, Verbania, is 28 min away by car. The nearest national health service hospital is in Angera, 8 km as the crow flies. Full fibre reaches 90% of homes.
Tags & datadesignations · numbers · sources
Landscape
The numbers
- Elevation: 199 m
- Population: 473
- Surface area: 7.13 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.
Similar
Towns like Belgirate
Iseo
Province: Brescia
both lake towns · both near sea level
Anguillara Sabazia
Province: Roma
both lake towns · both near sea level
Varenna
Province: Lecco
both lake towns · both under 1,000 people
Framura
Province: La Spezia
both under 1,000 people · both near sea level
Gardone Riviera
Province: Brescia
both lake towns · both near sea level
Salò
Province: Brescia
both lake towns · both near sea level
The ranked lists
Lists Belgirate appears in
- The best small lake towns in PiemontePiemontelakesmall7 towns · smallest 473 residents
- The 8 best towns you can reach by train in the province of Verbano-Cusio-OssolaVerbano-Cusio-Ossola provinceby train8 towns · smallest 473 residents
- The best lake towns in the province of Verbano-Cusio-OssolaVerbano-Cusio-Ossola provincelake8 towns · smallest 473 residents
- The best lake towns you can reach by train in PiemontePiemontelakeby train8 towns · smallest 473 residents
The letter
Belgirate 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 Belgirate comes up. By Peter & Sophia, from Turin.
The nearest town we have written up is Rapallo, 172 km away. Read its letter →
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