Italy summer 2011

Antoniella's dome at Novara

Sept 2011: We have been in Torino for three days, and before that, we spent a day in Novara - that is almost unknown to tourists, and it was pleasant to be in an Italian town that was just that.
    We seem unexpectedly to be in search of very tall things. Novara has an exceedingly tall dome over its principal church St Gaudenzio, but nobody seems to take an interest - we went inside and were the only people inside the vast building. (turns out later that the same architect, Antoniella, did the great Mole dome in Torino!)

Stresa from above (not my photo)

  We decided not to go to Torino direct, but to head north to Lago Maggiore, to see the magical coastline of that lake, and to see Stresa, the jewel like small town on the west coast - we stopped for a little lunch, I had a paddle in the lake water, and then we took the high road up to the hills, to go to Novara, cross country.
  On the way from Stresa to Torino is a hill town called Biella which has a large outskirts, including factories making cashmere-silk garments with many factory outlets. We drove about in a somewhat random fashion hoping to find one that was open... but didn't so continued on, hoping that the SatNav would be able to find the hotel in Novara.

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There's a lot more to add, but I will have to retrofit the later articles under these, in date order. There are the wonders and pleasures of Torino, Chieri, Superga, Lingotto, Genova, Piacenza and Cremona to add in.