Arona (; ; ) is a town and comune on Lake Maggiore, in the province of Novara (northern Italy). Its main economic activity is tourism, especially from Milan, France and Germany. History Archaeological findings have shown that the area of what today is Arona was settled from the 18th–13th centuries BC. Prehistoric pile-dwellings have been found near the town and are part of the Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps UNESCO World Heritage Site. Later it was a possession of the Celts, the Romans and the Lombards. In the 11th century the Benedictine abbey of Saints Gratianus and Felinus, Martyrs, was founded. After the siege and destruction of Milan in 1162 by Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, many of the exiled took refuge in Arona. Later the town was a possession of the Torriani and (from 1277) of the Visconti families. In the early 14th century, the town became a free commune under the suzerainty of the abbey. In 1439 it was acquired by Vitaliano Borromeo and, as a result, the House of Borromeo. It was in Arona that the twenty-year-old Oscar Wilde wrote his poem "Rome Unvisited" in 1875, travelling with his former Trinity College Dublin Classics Tutor, J.P. Mahaffy, lamenting that he had to leave Italy before having a chance to visit Rome. Geography The city of Arona is located on the Piedmontese shore of Lake Maggiore and is crossed by the Vevera stream, which flows into the lake. Around there are the hilly bas-reliefs of morainic origin incorporated into the Lagoni di Mercurago Natural Park where, in 1860, the first pile-dwelling settlement found in Italy was identified. The hills are generally covered by woods that occupy more than half of the territory. 33% of the surface is occupied by the urbanized areas, 9% by meadows or pastures; smaller percentages are allocated to parks, gardens and green sports areas (2.3%), vegetable gardens, orchards, nurseries and vineyards (1.7%), uncultivated herbaceous (1%) and arable land (0.4%). Main sights Arona's main attractions include: Sancarlone. This giant statue of Saint Charles Borromeo was commissioned by Cardinal Federico Borromeo, and construction began in 1614, completed in 1698. At it was the largest bronze standing statue in the world, still second only to the Statue of Liberty. It is said that the architects behind the Statue of Liberty consulted the blueprints of the Sancarlone when laying out their own. The statue was intended as part of