Monate – Italian Open Water Tour

Lago di Monate preserves an exceptionally clear freshwater basin, kept undisturbed by an absolute ban on motorized boats and fed continuously by submerged springs. Here in Travedona Monate, in the green lake district of Lombardy, the Italian Open Water Tour organizes one of northern Italy's most distinctive open water swimming events. Held in June under the title Traversata dei Pionieri, the stop is officially known as Monate – Italian Open Water Tour and serves as a classic early-summer fixture of the Challenge dei Laghi circuit. The event presents an unusually diverse schedule of distances, ranging from short dashes to long-distance marathons. Swimmers can choose between sprints of 926 metres, 1,000 metres, and a 1,852-metre nautical mile, or step up to endurance courses measuring 2,500, 3,000, 5,000, 6,000, and 7,000 metres.

In past editions, the 5,000-metre race traced a scenic route that closely hugged the shoreline along a large part of the perimeter. Sighting across the smooth water, you navigate against a distant backdrop framed by the snow-capped massif of Monte Rosa and shoreline waters steeped in prehistoric settlements.

Lago di Monate: spring-fed waters and the Acquanegra outlet

Swimmers encounter tranquil conditions without boat wakes, exhaust fumes, or engine noise. The basin drains through a single emissary, the Acquanegra stream, which begins its path at an altitude of 266 metres above sea level. Due to minimal elevation loss and very low water turbulence, the stream follows an easy, meandering course. Carrying the outflow across a wide and shallow channel of sand and mud, it eventually empties into Lake Maggiore at the locality of Lavorascio in Ispra. Historically, the gentle flow of the Acquanegra served as an essential power source for local trade, driving multiple watermills situated throughout the municipality of Travedona-Monate. Today, the stable conditions of the outflow support resilient river fish, with populations dominated by species such as chub and gudgeon.

Sabbione: Bronze Age pile dwellings beneath Lago di Monate

The waters of Lago di Monate conceal significant prehistoric archaeology resting just beneath the surface. Roughly 50 metres from the shore, at depths between two and six metres, lies the submerged pile-dwelling site of Sabbione. Archaeological studies show that this lakeside community was occupied for roughly 70 years, flourishing during the transitional phase between the Early and Middle Bronze Age. Archaeologists discovered four prehistoric dugout canoes carved from single tree trunks, known as piroghe monossili, which date back to 2500 BC. Four additional dugout canoes were later found in the lake bed, spanning across centuries from between the second and third century AD up to the tenth and eleventh century AD. These continuous finds reveal that local communities relied on these sheltered waters for transport and livelihood for thousands of years.

Isolino Virginia: UNESCO pile dwellings and Palude Brabbia wetlands

The ancient wetland civilization extends into neighboring basins carved out when the Verbano glacier retreated approximately 15,000 years ago. Less than a kilometre from the race area, on Lago di Varese, lies Isolino Virginia, a small island formed entirely from the gradual accumulation of Neolithic occupation layers. Pile dwellings were first discovered on the island in 1863, leading to detailed excavations between 1876 and 1884. In 2011, the settlement gained international protection when UNESCO inscribed it as a World Heritage site under the Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps. Today, the islet's fringes are thick with blooming water lilies and provide nesting grounds for herons and mallards. On the wider lake, which sits at 238 metres above sea level with a depth of 26 metres, open water swimming has made a welcome return, officially allowed again since July 2022 at the beaches of Schiranna and Bodio Lomnago.

Between Lake Varese and Lake Comabbio, the Palude Brabbia nature reserve shields 459 hectares of lowland peat bog. Nearby sits Lago di Biandronno, a glacial basin resting at 238 metres altitude that was once part of Lake Varese before becoming an independent body covering 1.282 square kilometres. Lacking natural tributaries and fed only by rain, Biandronno is gradually drying up, with an artificial outlet called Roggia Gatto draining toward Lake Varese. Established as a protected nature reserve in 1984, its moist basin preserves dense reed beds of Phragmites, water lilies, bogbean, and rare orchids such as Orchis incarnata.

Lago di Comabbio: silent waters and protected fish habitats

Lago di Comabbio is situated at an elevation of 243 metres above sea level. Once joined naturally with Lago di Varese, Comabbio is connected today only by an artificial channel. Motor boats are strictly prohibited across the entire lake to foster wildlife reproduction and preserve ecological tranquility. These quiet conditions shelter abundant fish life, including pike, carp, tench, and bluegills, though conservationists closely monitor the potential arrival of the non-native Wels catfish, which could threaten native species. Lake Brinzio, formed when glacial debris deposits blocked southward water flow at the Motta Rossa pass, was stabilized in the mid-nineteenth century by diverting the Intrino stream into its basin. Boating and swimming are prohibited under environmental regulations within this nature reserve, which was established in 1984 under the Campo dei Fiori Regional Park.

The lake basin supports trout, pike, and tench, serves as a breeding habitat for the common toad, and shelters nesting birds like mallards, grey herons, moorhens, water rails, kingfishers, and yellow wagtails. Nearby in the Cinque Vette Park, Lago di Ganna covers a shallow basin of 0.07 square kilometres with a maximum depth of three metres. Beneath the surface, the river Margorabbia enters as an underground tributary before flowing out toward Lago di Ghirla. Across the district, swimming the calm stretches of Lago di Monate, you immerse yourself in an ancient, spring-fed aquatic landscape.