Valsolda

This photogenic cluster of villages on the shores of Lake Lugano in Lombardy, Valsolda sits on the Swiss border with mountain terrain rising behind it. The novelist Antonio Fogazzaro set several works here, including Piccolo mondo antico (1895), and his house in Oria remains open to visitors. The municipality also contains Lombardy's largest natural reserve, a forested area home to deer, chamois, and eagles. A handful of cafés and an above-average number of churches round out a tiny but varied village.

• Population1,394
• Nearest water0.1 km
• Nearest mountain2.6 km
• UNESCO within 50 km14