The visit to the Rocca di Angera, on Lake Maggiore, in Lombardy. All the times and the cost to arrive and visit the Rocca di Angera and the Doll and Toy Museum inside.
Anyone looking for an original destination for a spring trip should certainly consider a visit to Rocca di Angera, protagonist of many evocative landscape shots of visitors to Arona, on the Piedmontese shore of Lake Maggiore. Unlike the western fortress of Arona, the one on the opposite shore still stands majestically on the spur of rock that dominates the town, testifying to the power of the great families that controlled the lake in the Middle Ages and in the age of the lords.
This position, excellent for having a broad control of the lake, in the narrow southern passage, had already been chosen by the Romans many centuries earlier for the construction of a military fort, of which however we have no trace: what can be visited today is instead the result of the total renovation of the XII century, wanted by Viscont familyi originally from Verbano (and arrived in Milan only after defeating the local power of the Torriani).
Today the fortress is owned by the family Borromeo and open to the public from March to October, from 9.30 to 17.30 (closing times and days are however subject to variations).
Entrance: € 9,50 adults; € 6,00 children.
How to get to the Rocca di Angera
The closest motorway is the Milano-Laghi (A8 / A26), the most convenient exit is that of Sesto Calende (about 13 km from the Rocca di Angera).
What to see at the Rocca di Angera
Inside the suggestive salt of the Rocca A unique museum of its kind in Italy and one of the most evocative of its category in Europe has been set up since 1988. The idea of the Doll Museum was born from the desire to exhibit a first nucleus of dolls owned by the Borromeo family, to which over the years other toys from different regions and countries of the world have been added, today it would therefore be more correct to define it as Doll and Toy Museum, with a section dedicated to those of foreign origin and a new wing reserved for automata.
The visit to the collection therefore allows you to enjoy a double path: on the one hand the walk through the historic rooms (the Visconti wing, the oldest, the Borromeo wing, overlooking the lake, kitchens, ceremonial halls and private rooms) another is the exhibition itinerary, organized according to chronological and geographical criteria that allow you to tell what a toy was at the beginning of the 700th century and what was the relationship between the game and the art of those who made it.
Also worth mentioning "The Collector's Room", A real reconstruction of a typical French living room, full of curious and rare objects, paintings and sculptures but above all children's clothes, in an exhibition that traces the evolution and trends for children's clothing up to the middle of the century last.
