Stresa on the banks of Lake Maggiore The Islands

Our real first day of the holiday and we had a free morning so we wandered along the lake side through the gardens to catch the road train for a ride round the town and to give us an idea of what’s on offer. well worth the 5 euros as it goes round all the little streets and probably to a few places we wouldn’t have found ourselves.

One of these places was at the very far north end of the town where at one time the Stresa-Alpino-Mottarone cable car took people up the mountain, but following a serious accident in 2021 killing several people it has never been recommissioned.

It also gave a good view of some of the islands we would be visiting this afternoon.

Stresa is a lovely little town and ideal for exploring the lake and islands, it was about a ten to fifteen minute walk from our hotel to the centre. Not only does in have a ferry terminal giving cheap transport to the islands as well as visiting lots of lakeside towns, it has loads of places to eat or just to get a drink during the day as well as a small harbour and lots of smaller excursion launches .  We used the ferries several times as you will see later. 

In the afternoon we had an excursion on one of the launches to two of the islands but we didn’t have to walk into town as the boat picked us up opposite our hotel.First we visited Isol dei Pescatori the island of the fishermen where we had our first Galetos. As you can imagine the streets are nothing more than alleyways between the houses as there are no cars and all travel is on foot with goods being transported on hand carts.

One end of the island is quite open with a small enclosed harbour for the small boats, other than a few tiny tourist shops and cafes there is very little on the island and you can easily see it all in an hour.

When our boat returned we did a short crossing to Isola Bella for a private guided tour of Borromeo palace after it had closed to the public. This is quite a magnificent palace as you will see from the pictures with lots of paintings, wall hung tapestries, high ceilings and fancy floors, that is before you go out into the gardens.
The entrance doors take you straight to a rather impressive hall way and stair case.

The room full of pictures is very impressive, they are hung from ceiling to floor with the opposite walls hung symmetrically in size and layout, at the end of the room is a bed chamber behind a low wall. As you can see even the floor is decorated.

     

Then into the rooms with high ceilings, one of the rooms contained a lovely model of the palace and island.  

Like lots of Italian Villas and Palaces they have there own collection of puppets, these were not for children's entertainment as they would be today but for adults and some are quite grewsome.  

     All the rooms we saw were quite outstanding, one of them contained a display case with the children’s armour in it. In another room was a splendid table.

One thing definitely worthy of note is the harpsichord in the music room, a thing of beauty without doubt. It seams that the family own many important instruments.

Next it was down stairs into the cool of the grotto and I have never seen such a large one taking in several rooms. One of the rooms contained the harnessing from the horses, another the statue of the sleeping Venus by Giovan Battista Monti. There is much more information on this web site 

Running up from this lower level is a spiral staircase going to the very top of the building, the steps are stone slabs just cantilevered out of the wall with no support on the other end  

Our final room to visit, one wall was hung with tapestries all hanging from ceiling to floor, showing a river scene with wild animals. It is said that the flow of the river changes as you walk by, but I couldn’t see it.

After this it was out into the garden, directly ahead of you is the pyramid with a stair case going up each side and home to some snow white Peacocks and hens who soon tell you they are there.

Not all our party took the opportunity to climb to the top, But from up there the views of the garden give a different perspective looking down from above, also looking out across the lake.

Probably not the best time of year to see the gardens but they still looked much better than mine at home.

The Palace is still lived in and as in the UK when the owner is in residence their personal flag is flown from the flag pole, at other times its the Country’s flag that is flown,