Fondazione Officine dell’Acqua

The Fondazione Officine dell’Acqua in Laveno-Mombello showcases the history of northern Italy’s waterways through vintage boats, shipbuilding tools, and workshops.

Planning your visit

The Fondazione Officine dell'Acqua occupies former industrial workshops on Lake Maggiore at Laveno-Mombello, and it preserves a craft tradition that motorised transport and fibreglass nearly extinguished. Northern Italy's lakes had their own boatbuilding culture — wooden hulls built for these specific waters, for fishing, ferrying goods and, later, for the elegant motor launches that served lakeside villas — and the collection covers it through vintage boats, shipbuilding tools, drawings and workshop equipment.

The project is as much urban regeneration as museum: reclaiming disused industrial buildings on the waterfront and putting traditional crafts back into them, with workshops that keep the skills alive rather than only displaying their products.

Laveno sits on the eastern shore of Maggiore, with the cable car up Sasso del Ferro behind it and ferries across to Intra on the far shore. The lake context is essential to understanding the collection — these were working waters before they were scenic ones.

Allow an hour or so. Bookable options are guided visits to the foundation. The wider Lake Maggiore circuit, including the Borromean islands, makes a natural extended trip. Current availability is shown below.