Isole Borromee (with added photos)

Thursday 17th April

We understand from the weather forecast that today was to be the last day of sunshine until Sunday/Monday, so we took adantage of the complete lack of wind and caught the bus again into Stresa with the plan of visiting the islands of Borromeo.  Off the bus, across the road, walking towards the Tourist Office, a representative of 'Lake Tours' accosted me to lure us onto one of his boats.  We had decided to visit Isola Pescatori and Isola Bella - there is a third island, Isola Madre, but very small and not much to see - he straight away gave us his price and wait by the boat with the yellow flag - boat leaves at 11.15.  This proved to be a really good choice (not that we gave any of the other companies a look in) as the boat was small (about 18 of us on board) and fast and it took us first to Madre to drop people off who had paid for 3 islands, then dropped us at Pescatori.  Trinket stalls lined the harbour-front, but above them we found a network of tiny alleyways, up steps, around corners between classy souvenir shops and restaurants.  We also walked all around the island at lake level, had drinks at a pretty cafe, spent a few minutes in the church, the children spent their pocket money and we sat on a seat to eat our picnic - from every direction a beautiful view.  We caught the next 'Lake Tours' boat for the 5 minute journey to Isola Bella.  Here there are some shops and restaurants, but the main attraction is the Palazzo of the
Borromeo family, built in C17.  The palace is very grand and we all loved it - Adam so much so that he kept saying that he wanted to live there!  After all the amazing rooms and grottos (low ceiling rooms with the walls, floors and ceilings covered with small stone mosaics) we went out into the gardens.  We had seen from Stresa that the garden looked like a wedding cake and to walk up through the many terraces amongst the colourful flower beds, the grassy lawns with white peacocks, and walls covered with trees of various citrus fruits made the children even more determined to live there!  By this time Adam was the King and Emilie the Grand Duchess of the island and making important decisions on what the servants' duties would be ....  Then we came the corner of the garden with a little cafe with ice cream in all the tempting flavours - things were just getting better and better. Soon the time came to leave 'Adam's Palace' as it has now been renamed, but we can't help thinking that there will be a return visit one day, especially as Daddy has missed being there with us. On Tuesday when we visited Stresa, we'd hoped to find the one and only geocache there, but the wind and the waves prevented us from getting down the set of steps to the water's edge.  This afternoon, with the calm water, wewere a ble to reach it, plus the children had a long play in the 'playground with the best view ever', before catching the bus back to Feriolo.  Tiredness and hunger were getting the better of us, so we stopped at one of the cafes (the one surrounded by masses of yellow and purple pansies) for our evening meal on the way home.
 

Isola Pescatori

Adam's Palace, Isola Bella