May 27, 2025

Weather partly cloudy and 70’s

Sunrise over Lake Maggiore

We were up at 6 to get ready for a full day of adventuring.  It stormed during the night, so that made everything greener and more conducive to touring. The breakfast was good, typical European buffet. They had a machine that made fresh squeezed orange juice and a device that injected Pistachio or chocolate crème into a croissant. 

Going on an adventure

After breakfast we met our guide at 8:30 and boarded a boat to Isola Bella.  This is the home of the Borromeo Family. Yes, that Charles Borromeo who was so instrumental at the Council of Trent. There was a painting of him as a little boy in the palace.  For Palace it was.

The unassuming outside

Model of the campus

We walked through many rooms each in the baroque style of the times. We took a lot of pictures. Here are some:

The Music Room

Napoleon slept here

One of a series of rooms they called caves

Another picture in the cave area

Third cave area room

The throne in the throne room

The work that went into the construction and decoration and furnishing this place was mind boggling. And then we went into the garden.  And wandered around for 45 minutes.  It was not long enough! The foundation must have 40 full time gardeners just to keep up.  We saw some weeding pathways by hand! The walls were 3 meters thick in many areas. The Borromeo’s made their money banking, and the cost must have been huge.  They had Cardinals and Popes in the family and were aligned with the Medici of Florence.

Here is a partial taste of the grounds: 

Near the palace

White peacock

The Rose wall

After 2 hours of jaw dropping opulence, we boarded our boat and went to the Isle of the Fishermen. This used to be a major industry for the area, but now there are only 4 fishermen. We walked through the very narrow streets full of shops and restaurants. Arnaud our guide ended the tour at a place that explained the kinds of fish that were to be found in the lake.

The fish story

The main inhabitants are perch, trout and pike. We then were let on our own for 2 hours.  We decided on lunch and picked a restaurant near the park with a view.  We split a dish of risotto with Perch.

Risotto for lunch

As we were eating a busker was singing opera to a karaoke piano. It was really quite good.  We were treated to a medley of various opera. We recognized a few like Habanera from Carmen. We donated in her box, and she was kind enough to have her picture made with her.

Us and the Opera singer

We strolled through the town and visited some of the shops we had passed during our orientation walk. Shirley scored some earrings and a pendant. Then we couldn’t pass up the gelato shop without a taste.

Gelato for dessert

We made our way to the meeting place and chatted with Conny our guide and a couple from Seattle until our boat came to return us to the Splendid Hotel and a little rest. Our next activity is dinner in Stresa at 6:15.

Precisely at 6:15 we boarded the launch for a 15-minute boat taxi to the village of Stresa. Hemingway convalesced here. We docked and then explored the town which was typical Italian, with cobbled narrow streets and lots of character.  We window shopped the many stalls and restaurant menus as Conny kept a running travelogue about this very Italian town.

We settled on a nice restaurant called Osteria Degli Amici Di Ferratuolo. With a glass of wine some spaghetti and Tiramisu, we watched the locals in the square going about their Italian ways.  Dinner was excellent as was the dessert.

Anticipating Dinner

Ater dinner we strolled around the town popping in and out of shops, then down by the lake on the nice wide paved esplanade.

Around town

We met the boat at 9:15 and were treated to the shore of Lake Maggiore at night with the hotels lit up. After docking we were back at our hotel, our room and our bed, Another fine day of great weather and good company.

Buena Sera