Capital of its province and the second biggest city in Piedmont after Turin, Novara is in a strategic location for commerce and has much to offer tourists. Surrounded by picturesque hills, the city is at the crossroads of the area between Milan, Turin, Genoa and Switzerland, and is the starting point for a range of tours of cultural, historical and artistic interest. The local food and wine are renowned, and there is a variety of possibilities for leisure activities. Features of the city are long tree-lined boulevards, the so-called baluardi, columns of serizzo (a type of granite), paved and cobbled streets, and trottatoie (the strips of flat stone once laid on cobbled streets to facilitate the passage of carriage wheels), as well as a number of historic buildings. Cultural sights include the bronze monument to Vittorio Emanuele II in Piazza Martiri della Libertà, Palazzo Orelli, the Cathedral, the Baptistery, the Basilica of San Gaudenzio, and the complex of the Broletto (medieval municipal hall). This area in the heart of Piedmont between the Sesia and Ticino rivers has been poetically called “the Gentle Land”, and is characterised by rice fields where the green hills sweep down to the plain, and tranquil villages with a strong agricultural and craft tradition. To discover the history, culture and traditions of the Novara area, the visitor should explore its characteristic small towns, burghs like Borgomanero, Ghemme and Romagnano Sesia, which are full of interest and should not be missed on a tour of discovery of the province.