The river rises in the Val Bedretto in Switzerland at the frontier between the cantons of Valais and Ticino, is fed by the glaciers of the Alps and later flows through Lake Maggiore, before entering Italy. The Ticino joins the Po a few kilometres downstream (along the Ticino) from Pavia. It is about long. The highest point of the drainage basin is the summit of Grenzgipfel (a subpeak of Monte Rosa), at . Beneath it flows the Anza, a right-bank tributary of the Ticino.