PREMENO is a very old village of around 500 people. It is very quiet in winter, ideal as a retreat, but significantly busier in August when the Milanese use the many holiday homes in the village. In the summer there are many options for entertainment including a 50 seater cinema, showing recent Hollywood blockbusters (in Italian of course!) It is over 800m above sea level, and is between 10 – 15 minutes up the mountain from Verbania, one of the main towns on Lake Maggiore.

Premeno has a small supermarket, a bar, a restaurant, and a few hotels but is itself much more a very quiet backwater than a tourist resort. A hire car is recommended for accessing the house and for seeing the surrounding countryside. The flat can be reached in a total of approx. 1 hour from Milan Malpensa airport and approx. 1 ½ hours from Bergamo (Orio al Serio) airport. The motorway network for Milan and Berne and Turin etc. is less than 30 minutes from the house. Premeno is on the edge of the Val Grande, one of Europe’s last great wildernesses.

There is a train station (for Milan) at Gravellona Toce (30 minutes from the house) and there is a reasonable local bus service, but the frequency drops in the evening and in the winter and the further up the mountain you want to go.