Brissago & Ronco s/Ascona

From Brissago you can climb up the Sacro Monte and to the Santuario di Santa Maria Addolorata, a once wild and dramatic place that now boasts an unusually picturesque charm thanks to its baroque style. Brissago is also famous for its cigars that bear the name of the town overlooking Lake Maggiore. Founded by a group of enterprising locals and Italians in 1847, the Fabbrica Tabacchi Brissago was the starting point for the evolution of the cigar industry in Ticino and specialised in the artisanal production of Virginia cigars. Thanks to the expertise of the Brissago factory, these cigars would later become known as Brissago cigars. The charming town of Ronco sopra Ascona boasts medieval origins. Built of tower houses that lean one against the other, it climbs up the promontory overlooking the lake and offers enchanting views of the landscape. As well as its intimate and welcoming atmosphere, plenty of famous people have also made this village their home. The birthplace of Antonio Ciseri, in its cemetery you will also see the graves of many artists who chose it as their adopted home, such as Eric Maria Remarque and his wife Paulette Goddard (formerly the wife of Charlie Chaplin), Richard Seewald, Rolf Lenne, Ernst Fischer, Ursula La Ruelle-Krebs, Gerhard Maasz and Kurt Hoffmann.