Carmine Superiore

A must see if you pass by Cannobio. I would have preferred that the path to reach it was better indicated (look well near the inn and the wine cellar of the lake, next to the homonymous hotel, you will find an indication). 15 minutes are enough to climb but it is not at all tiring even if you are not well trained. The stairway is easy and not too steep, the little road kept well and in any case safe. Once you reach the village you can enjoy a beautiful view as well as admire the church of San Gottardo (too bad it was closed when we passed!). I would recommend adding a few more explanatory panels perhaps to attract more visitors or leaving the church open so that you can access it ...

Incredibly beautiful place - for me one of the most beautiful on Lake Maggiore. The small village and the church - as if straight out of a fairy tale book!

Tiny mountain village, you can only get there on foot. Some houses are inhabited, others are derelict. There are no rest stops. Wonderful view over Lake Maggiore

Absolute dream place ... you have to be good on foot, because there is only a stony path uphill, which is beautiful in itself ... and above a stone village full of magic ... old ... lovingly restored .... Painted ... and everywhere everything STONES ... .. and then this view of Lake Maggiore ...... just beautiful ……

A village reachable only on foot, a corner already in the mountains, but with an incomparable view of Lake Maggiore: it is the microscopic village of Carmine Superiore, which enters the small number of inhabited places where there are no cars. Carmine Superiore, born in the Middle Ages and abandoned by the last permanent inhabitants in the 1930s, is a fraction of Cannobio, the Piedmontese side of the Verbano: it faces the Veddasca mountains, almost opposite the Lombard village of Monteviasco, known because it is reached only by one mule track. Carmine Superiore are few houses, but something - the frescoed church, the arches between one house and the other, the balcony that was once a cemetery - say it was a real village, not a temporary mountain pasture. It starts from Carmine Inferiore, a few buildings along the lake road: arriving from Verbania, the few houses are anticipated by a parking lot where you can leave your car. The path starts next to a house, it is well indicated by the red-white hiking signs: don't be fooled by the first ramp with ugly concrete steps, immediately after the path it becomes a stone paved road. One climbs first among a few holiday homes of yesteryear: some palm trees remind us that the lake was an exotic Mediterranean place, for Germans and Swiss. In a couple of places, a chapel or a bench offer an opportunity to stop and look or take a breath (if you are not used to it, but the road is short). After about fifteen minutes of walking you will come out almost suddenly in front of the church of San Gottardo, perched on the rock and arranged on three levels built between 1332 and 1431. Inside, a riot of newly restored frescoes that can be admired (if the church is closed) even from a stained glass window. On the outside, the old cemetery has become a balcony overlooking the Maggiore, with a view of Maccagno and the villages that like steps go up the Val Veddasca, Luino which can be glimpsed on the right. Also on the outside there are many frescoes, discovered in 1933: saints, bishops, the three wise men who, laden with gifts, present themselves to the baby Jesus. Around the church there are a few houses, mostly recovered as weekend and summer houses. There are arches, some flower pots. In some places the path is nothing more than the bare rock that emerges between the buildings. There is no bar, no restaurant in Carmine, only the alleys and the very wide view. If you want - if you have a good leg - you can continue for lunch to get to Cannero (50 minutes) or Cannobio (1h 20 '). Or you can only get to the bottom of the village, to the last houses: you are at the height of the beole roofs, one next to the other. Immediately behind there are some meadows, a persimmon tree with its orange fruit challenges the trees to those who offer the most intense autumn colors. Beyond the stone roofs, the lake offers itself to the even wider, shameless gaze between Switzerland and the Borromean Islands.

A small almost deserted village If you stroll through the narrow streets, you need a maximum of 10 minutes to see everything But the village is definitely worth seeing There is free parking on the street, the walk from there to the village takes about 20 minutes (quite steep)