Once part of the Lombard duchy of Angera and ruled by the Visconti until 1513, Locarno’s latter day fame comes from pleasure-seeking summer concerts and its international film festival. Wander the old town’s cinematic piazzas and lakeside promenade, and admire the fine Lombard art hidden in churches like the Chiesa Nuova (Via Cittadella) and the Chiesa di San Francesco (Piazza San Francesco. A rope railway ascends 1,200ft from Locarno to the Santuario della Madonna del Sasso (Via del Santuario 2), where Bramantino’s Fuga in Egitto (Flight into Egypt) captures a soft-faced Mary amid a craggy Lombard landscape.
