Novara travel guide
Antonelli's brick dome, paniscia and flooded rice fields
A quiet provincial capital between Milan and Turin, worth a stop for the towering San Gaudenzio dome, the Broletto and a plate of paniscia. Come in April and May when the rice fields are flooded, or in September and October; a day is enough, longer if you add Lake Orta. Prices are high, and many nationalities visit Italy visa-free.
Novara is Piedmont's second city, a flat, orderly place 50 km west of Milan, set among the rice fields between the Agogna and Terdoppio streams. It is not a city of art in the Florentine sense, and locals would not pretend otherwise. What it does have is one extraordinary building: the brick dome of San Gaudenzio, raised by Alessandro Antonelli over a 16th-century church and visible for kilometres across the paddies.
Inside the ring of tree-lined bastions, the old town follows its Roman grid. Corso Cavour and Corso Italia cross near the Broletto, the medieval civic courtyard, and the cathedral with its early Christian baptistery is a few steps away.
Half a day covers the centre. The surrounding plain, flooded each spring for rice, and Lake Orta to the north are good reasons to use it as a base.
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Top things to do in Novara
A short list of sights dominated by one great dome, plus Romanesque fragments, a civic courtyard and good rice cooking.
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Best time to visit Novara
Month by month, so you can pick the weather and the crowds you want.
The paddies around Novara are flooded for planting, the plain turns into a sheet of water and the light is at its best.
Rice harvest, mild days and the Colline Novaresi wineries pressing their reds.
Foggy and cold on the plain, but the patron saint's feast on 22 January livens up the city.
On 22 January Novara celebrates San Gaudenzio, its patron, around the basilica; in late March the city re-enacts the 1849 Battle of Novara (Bicocca).
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Getting there
Malpensa, three stations and the A4
Milan Malpensa is the obvious airport, only about 35 km to the north-east; a taxi or hire car is the simplest link, as public transport usually means changing trains. Milan Linate and Turin Caselle are further alternatives. Most arrivals are by rail: Novara is about 40 minutes from Milano Centrale, and the same line continues west to Vercelli and Turin.
- Train from Milano Centrale
- About 40 minutes to Novara FS
- Malpensa airport
- About 35 km; taxi or car is the most direct link
- Novara Nord
- Ferrovienord trains towards Saronno and Milan
- The city has three stations.
- The main Novara FS station handles regional, national and international trains, Novara Nord on Via Leonardo da Vinci is the terminus of the Ferrovienord line from Saronno and Milan, and little Vignale serves a few regional trains on the edge of town.
- By road, the A4 Turin to Milan motorway passes with two exits, Novara Ovest and Novara Est; the A26 has no direct junction, so join the A4 instead.
- Novara FS sits just outside the bastion ring, so San Gaudenzio is an easy walk away.
Where to stay
Inside the baluardi or out among the paddies
Hotels are mostly business-minded, serving visitors to the companies on the Milan to Turin corridor, so weekends can be quieter and better value. The bastion ring keeps the old town compact, and anywhere inside it puts San Gaudenzio within ten minutes on foot.
- Historic centre
- Within the bastions, a few minutes from San Gaudenzio, the Broletto and the Duomo; the best choice for an evening stroll, but parking is limited
- Corso Cavour and Corso Italia
- On the old Roman crossroads, with bars and shops below; some street noise at weekends
- Around Novara FS
- Just outside the bastion ring; convenient for trains to Milan, Turin and the lakes, though the streets are plain
- Rice-country farmhouses
- Agriturismi on the plain outside town; peaceful and flat for cycling, but you need a car and mosquito repellent in summer
- If you plan to spend most of your time at Lake Orta, staying there and visiting Novara for a day can make more sense.
Getting around
Walk the centre, SUN buses beyond
The old town is a rough pentagon ringed by the baluardi, broad tree-lined boulevards laid out where the walls once stood, and everything inside them is walkable. The two main axes follow the Roman cardo and decumanus: Corso Cavour and Corso Mazzini run north to south, Corso Italia and Corso Cavallotti east to west.
- SUN buses
- Urban network across Novara
- Radio Taxi Novara
- Book by phone
- SUN runs the city buses; buy a ticket before you board and validate it.
- Taxis are booked by phone through the Radio Taxi cooperative.
- Drivers should know that from mid-September to mid-April older diesel cars are barred on weekdays between 8.30am and 6.30pm, and the oldest petrol and diesel cars at all hours; park-and-ride car parks on the outskirts let you leave the car and continue by bus.
- The bastion ring makes a pleasant shaded loop for a walk or bike ride of around an hour.
Know before you go
What makes Novara worth the trip, and what catches visitors out.
Why travelers love it
- San Gaudenzio's dome, Antonelli's brick tower of about 120 m topped by a gilded Christ, built between 1844 and 1878 and the work of the same architect behind Turin's Mole Antonelliana.
- Gaudenzio Ferrari's polyptych of 1516 inside the basilica, a two-tier altarpiece by the Piedmontese painter who shares the saint's name.
- The cathedral baptistery, an early Christian building that is among the oldest in Piedmont, standing across a courtyard from Antonelli's neoclassical Duomo.
Good to know
- Winter driving limits apply to older cars from mid-September to mid-April, mostly on weekday daytimes; check your car's Euro rating and the current ordinance before driving in.
- Mosquitoes are a real nuisance near the rice fields from late spring through summer; pack repellent for evening walks.
Trip fit
BookingMentor editorial ratings out of 5, based on a first-time visitor's experience.
Weather in Novara, month by month
Month-by-month climate figures for Novara are being researched.
San Gaudenzio's dome, the Broletto and the baluardi loop
Arrive mid-morning and walk up to the Basilica of San Gaudenzio on the highest point of the old town. Tibaldi designed the church in 1590 and Gaudenzio Ferrari's polyptych hangs inside, yet Antonelli's brick dome is the draw: over 5,000 tonnes, grafted onto a church three centuries older.
Alfieri's 18th-century bell tower alongside stands 92 m high. Guided climbs inside the dome run at weekends from spring to late autumn, booked through Kalata, and give the best view over the paddies.
Walk down to the Broletto, the cluster of medieval civic buildings around a brick courtyard in the middle of the old town, now home to the city's modern art gallery. Lunch nearby on paniscia.
In the afternoon visit the Duomo on Piazza della Repubblica, rebuilt by Antonelli in a cool neoclassical style, and the much older baptistery facing it. Then stroll the baluardi, the shady avenues that replaced the walls, passing the Barriera Albertina, the pair of neoclassical gatehouses that marked the old road from Turin to Milan. Close with a glass of Ghemme in one of the bars along Corso Cavour.
Paniscia, Gorgonzola and the rice fields around Novara
Novara sits in one of Europe's main rice-growing districts, and the local table shows it. The dish to order is paniscia, a thick risotto cooked with borlotti beans, cabbage and other vegetables, and salam d'la duja, a soft pork salami traditionally preserved under fat in an earthenware pot.
Neighbouring Vercelli makes its own version called panissa; the two cities argue about which is the original.
The province is also one of the heartlands of Gorgonzola, the blue cheese made in sweet and sharp styles, and it turns up in risottos, on polenta and on cheese boards. Novara's women's volleyball club even carries the cheese's name.
For something to take home, look for biscottini di Novara, light, dry sponge biscuits sold in pastry shops and meant for dunking. The hills to the north, the Colline Novaresi, make structured Nebbiolo-based reds such as Ghemme, which has DOCG status, along with Boca and Fara. Traditional trattorie in the old town and the farm restaurants out among the paddies are the places to try rice cooking at its plainest and best.
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How we research our Novara travel guide
Novara's winter limits on older diesel cars, its three stations and the SUN bus routes are checked against the Comune di Novara website and Italia.it.
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Checked against trusted sources:
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Quick answers to the questions travelers ask most before visiting Novara.
General
Yes, but public transport usually means changing trains; for the 35 km a taxi or hire car is quicker and simpler.
Trenitalia services from Milano Centrale take about 40 minutes to Novara FS; Ferrovienord trains via Saronno end at Novara Nord on Via Leonardo da Vinci.
For a day, yes: the San Gaudenzio dome alone justifies getting off the train, and paniscia with Gorgonzola makes a memorable lunch. Lake Orta or Vercelli round it out.
Roughly 120 m, built entirely of brick by Alessandro Antonelli between 1844 and 1878, and crowned by a statue of Christ.
Novara's signature dish: risotto cooked with beans, vegetables and salam d'la duja, a soft salami kept under fat in a clay pot.
The feast of the patron San Gaudenzio on 22 January, and a re-enactment of the 1849 Battle of Novara (Bicocca) around 23 March.
From mid-September to mid-April, petrol and diesel cars of Euro 2 or older are barred at all hours, and later diesels up to recent Euro classes from 8.30am to 6.30pm on weekdays. The Euro classes covered change each season, so check the comune's current ordinance, and use the park-and-ride car parks near the A4 exits Novara Ovest or Novara Est.
Yes. Lake Orta and Lake Maggiore lie to the north, the rice town of Vercelli is a short train ride west, and the Ticino river parkland on the Lombardy border is about 15 km east.
Nebbiolo-based reds from the Colline Novaresi, above all Ghemme, plus Boca and Fara.
The old town is a rough pentagon ringed by the baluardi, broad tree-lined boulevards laid out where the walls once stood, and everything inside them is walkable. The two main axes follow the Roman cardo and decumanus: Corso Cavour and Corso Mazzini run north to south, Corso Italia and Corso Cavallotti east to west.
Timing & weather
In April and May, when the paddies are filled for planting and the plain becomes a sheet of water; September and October bring the harvest. Winters are foggy.
The best time to visit Novara is Apr to May, Sep to Oct. Spring floods the rice paddies into a mirror around the city; autumn brings the harvest and mild walking weather.
- Spring: April - May (The paddies around Novara are flooded for planting, the plain turns into a sheet of water and the light is at its best)
- Autumn: September - October (Rice harvest, mild days and the Colline Novaresi wineries pressing their reds)
- Winter: November - February (Foggy and cold on the plain, but the patron saint's feast on 22 January livens up the city)
Getting there
Milan Malpensa is the obvious airport, only about 35 km to the north-east; a taxi or hire car is the simplest link, as public transport usually means changing trains. Milan Linate and Turin Caselle are further alternatives. Most arrivals are by rail: Novara is about 40 minutes from Milano Centrale, and the same line continues west to Vercelli and Turin.
Visa & documents
Schengen rules apply in Italy. Citizens of the EU and of many other countries, including the US, UK, Canada and Australia, can visit visa-free for up to 90 days in any 180-day period; other nationalities need a Schengen visa. The EU's Entry/Exit System (EES) records non-EU travelers' fingerprints and a photo at the border.
Health & safety
Violent crime against visitors to Italy is rare. Pickpocketing is the main problem, especially on buses and metros in Rome (bus 64 is notorious), at Roman and Florentine sights, and at Termini and Naples Centrale stations. Wear your bag across your body and zip it, and use only licensed white taxis or official ride apps.
