Season highlight: Motor ship “Antares” to be launched on May 9, 2009.
Special offers: Children up to age 12 travel for free when accompanied by their parents. Also, tourists will be able to claim 10% rebates in over 60 restaurants between Lago Maggiore and the valleys of Ossola when showing their ship tickets.
For more than 180 years, motor boats, ferries and passenger steamboats of shipping line Lago Maggiore have been sailing the Northern Italian Sea. They connect its three shores – the Piedmontese, the Lombard and the Swiss – and serve as popular means of transportation and going on excursions for countless tourists throughout the whole summer.
The schedule for the 2009 season again shows a lot of diversity. All routes of the previous year have been confirmed. The Cicogna, a ship inaugurated in 2008, for instance, will again sail the route of Carciano (Stresa) – Isola Bella – Isola dei Pescatori. Another offer that guests wouldn’t want to miss out on is the unique round trip of Lago Maggiore Express. The journey starts out with a ship tour from Arona to Locarno, followed by a ride on the Vigezzina train through the Centovalli to Domodossola and, lastly, back to Arona by train (Cisalpino and Italian state railroad Trenitalia). The twist: The whole journey is covered by a single ticket.
The undisputed highlight of the season is the brand new motor ship Antares, to be commissioned on May 9, 2009. It will hold a total of 460 passengers. Of its 284 seats, 116 are canopied and 168 are open-air. From May 9 on, the Antares will cast off from Arona at 11.30 a.m. daily, headed towards Stresa, and then steer around the center of the lake. Passengers will be able to spend a wonderful “cruise day”, with on-board lunch, various landmarks to marvel at, such as the Borromean Islands and, of course, the opportunity to go ashore here and there to deepen their impressions from atop the water.
Additional offers, such as the two-hour boat trips to Santa Caterina del Sasso Abbey and the Borromean Gulf, each taking place in the afternoon and at dusk, are just as attractive, of course. Guests may further book a whole ship for an event or a short cruise: they are given a choice of cutting-edge models with catering service on board and historic ships, such as the Piedmont steam boat from 1904.
In addition, shipping line Lago Maggiore and numerous restaurants around the Northern Italian Sea have thought up a particularly attractive tourist offer for the 2009 season – the “Open Day – Il turismo che viaggia” initiative. What this means? Firstly, for children under the age of twelve and who are accompanied by adults, boarding the ships will, from now on, be free of charge, as will be the Lago Maggiore Express round trip. One child under the age of twelve may travel along for free per adult accompanying person, making it two children within a family. The second offer allows tourists to claim rebates of 10% at over 60 restaurants between Lago Maggiore and the valleys of Ossola when showing a ticket for a ship tour or the combined ship and train trip Lago Maggiore Express. Now, if that’s not an incentive…
