The municipality of Oggebbio includes 15 little villages, some on the lake shore and others scattered on the hillside overlooking the lake.
Approaching Oggebbio from above Ghiffa on the provincial “panoramic” road on the hillside, you first come to Novaglio, well-known in the area for its much-visited spring of drinking water, and for its Romanesque Church of Sant’Agata.
Standing in a panoramic situation overlooking the lake, it is decorated with Gothic and Renaissance features, and is one of the prettiest churches still in a good state of conservation.
Farther on and farther up the hillside to the left is Piazza, in an area studded with 19th century villas among vegetable gardens and vineyards. Gonte is the chief village in the municipality; its parish church of San Pietro is accompanied by a bell tower 42 metres high. An interesting hamlet from the artistic point of view is Cadessino, where the 15th century oratory of the Nativity of Mary, a national monument, contains a beautiful high altar in polychrome marble and a splendid cycle of 15th century frescoes.
The hillside above Oggebbio boasts a number of fine substantial villas with superb gardens, as well as ancient high pastures whose old cottages are now often used as holiday houses.
Hikers will enjoy exploring the network of paths and old mule-tracks which in the past were the only means of communication between villages and high pastures, and which now afford pleasant walks through the woods; you will notice the remains of the infinite series of terraces once used to grow vines, rye and other crops.
In common with the rest of the mid-upper shore of Lake Maggiore, Oggebbio, has a distinctive microclimate which facilitates the cultivation of camellias, the pride of the local people. Many flower in autumn, unusually for Europe; a rarity is the presence in the area of the Kamakura Shibori variety, the only one to withstand winter snowfalls.