Cascade of spring impressions ( 2 )
“What can be said about Lake Maggiore, or the Borromean Islands, or Lake Como, one can only pity those who do not go crazy over them, ” wrote F. Stendhal.
So, Italy, Stresa, Barromean Islands.
Today is our last day in Stresa and it will be dedicated to the Barromean Islands, because of which we actually visited this lovely place.
The Borromean Islands (this is Isola Bella, Isola Madre, Isola dei Pescatori, the fourth island of Isola San Giovanni is privately owned) are located in the middle of Lago Maggiore. Lake Maggiore, the Great Lake, is located in northern Italy, in the foothills of the Alps, and is formed by the movement of a glacier. This is not such a big lake, although the second largest in Italy (after Lake Garda).
The Borromean Islands got their name from the Borromeans. Borromeo is a form from Buon Romeo. The family comes from Tuscany. Vitaliano Borromeo is considered the ancestor of the Milanese branch.
On the Borromean Islands lived bankers, cardinals, officers and politicians who were related to the highest Italian nobility. The palace of the Borromeo family (XVII century) on the island of Isola Bella was loved by European monarchs and poets (in particular, Napoleon I Bonaparte and Goethe).
First we buy tickets for the boats of their national shipping company Gestione Navigazione Laghi: Stresa - Pallanza for 16.90 (all prices are based on 1 person). Why exactly Stresa - Pallanza, because they planned to visit another Taranto villa, but the weather made its own adjustments. And you could buy other tickets for 13.80 Stresa - Baveno, also with entry to all the islands, but without Taranto Villa.
Here we buy entrance tickets to Isola Bella, Isola Madre for 18.00 euros.
So, let's swim. The weather is cloudy, sometimes it drizzles with light rain, but there is no time to pay attention to such trifles.
The first island to visit, Isola Bella, the most famous of the Borromeans, was nothing more than a rocky wasteland when, in 1670, Count Carlo III Barromeo conceived the idea of turning it into a garden for his wife Isabella.
We swim up, a slight disappointment. When I watched the program on TV, it was presented as an island from a fairy tale: terraces on three sides, immersed in flowers. But during our visit there were quite a few flowers, apparently you need to come here in early May. The tour begins with a villa built in the Baroque style. At the entrance we show tickets and with a wave of our hand we are directed to some group. We join and the guide leads to the halls. The tour starts, oh my god, in French. And since we don’t understand anything, we inspect everything on our own, then we’re a little ahead of the group, then we’re a little behind.
State rooms and elegant salons with many works of art, decorated with antique luxurious furniture, sculptures, paintings, expensive tapestries, a collection of musical instruments, all kinds of unusual clocks ...Group after group moves from hall to hall, almost stepping on each other's heels. After hearing the German speech, we quickly stepped over the rope fences and almost at the very beginning joined the German-speaking group. Well, now it has become much more interesting when you understand what it is about. For some reason, all excursions that day were in French, but we were lucky, if not with Russian, then at least with German.
We pass to the lower part of the villa, there are 6 artificial grottoes decorated with shells, in those days it was fashionable. To be honest, I liked these grottoes the most. It's strange, we've never seen anything like it before.
From the last hall we immediately pass into the luxurious gardens, which go down 10 different terraces, decorated with niches, fountains, statues of nymphs. The weather took pity on us and for some time the rain stopped.
The grandiose building could not be beautifully captured in any way: either scaffolding, or curious tourists around, and finally, cloudy weather, spoiled our “oil painting”, so to speak. At the top of the platform, at a height of 34 meters, rises a unicorn, the heraldic symbol of the Borromeo family, and figures of Nature and Art stand nearby.
Exotic plants grow in the gardens, as well as maples, palms, eucalyptus and camellias, laurel trees, cypresses, magnolias... and white peacocks.
Through a small greenhouse we leave the gardens and find ourselves on that small part of the island where there are tents with tours. products.
We almost didn’t have to wait for the boat (already different) and we go further, bypassing the island of Isola dei Pescatori, to the island of Isola Madre.
"Isola Madre is a place full of bliss, the best I have ever seen, " wrote Gustave Flaubert.
I probably agree with him, I liked it here more. This Barromeo Palace also has beautiful rooms filled with countless works of art: tapestries, antique furniture, porcelain, paintings, a collection of German and French dolls, statues, mannequins... and... and. . and. . And the English-style garden is just a miracle. The garden itself consists of seven terraces, where you can see cypresses, rhododendrons, magnolias, palm trees, camellias, beautiful cedars, lemon trees ....and everywhere, on every lawn, peacocks and pheasants walk around, parrots sit on branches.
We walked around all the terraces, drank coffee in a cafe, rested and went to the exit. And the storm began: thunder, lightning, downpour. It was planned to see more Villa Taranto, but the weather prevented, and for 1 day 3 villas + 3 parks, this is too much.
While we were returning to Stresa by boat, the storm subsided, we decided not to waste precious time and went along the embankment to the Mottarone cable car. On the way, we had a bite to eat at Daniel`s Bar cafe, they cook not bad pizza here. Despite such a beautiful location of Stresa on the lake, from time to time there are abandoned hotels, houses, villas ...somehow, it would seem that such a resort place became sad, and desolation is upon you.
Since it was already afternoon, and I didn’t know exactly what the alpine park in Alpino was like and how long it would take, we bought tickets only for the first section of the path, to Alpino. The ticket costs 12.50 + 2.00 euro deposit for a magnetic card/ticket. At the end of the trip, the magnetic card is surrendered and the deposit is returned back. We went upstairs, following the signs under the umbrellas, we went in the direction of the garden. Entrance to the garden/park costs 3.00 euros. We were the only visitors there.
No excitement, nothing interesting, and absolutely nothing to do there, if not for the beautiful view of the lake. The garden itself is large, we didn’t go around it all, we walked only in those places where the paths were paved with cobblestones. We tried to go down the usual earthen path, slipped and came back. On most of its territory, nature is simply natural: spruces, firs, birches ...everything is normal, so nothing from the vegetation surprised us there and nothing attracted us. In one place there is a small ledge, there are benches, or rather benches, and here you can sit and admire the lake, which we did. The sun peeped through from time to time and illuminated one shore of the lake, then the other ...the mood improved noticeably, I didn’t want to leave there.
We still had time and we bought tickets to Mount Mottarone. Since we are here, we are going higher. We showed our first tickets, paid another 5.50 and, like on a private lift, we were taken up to the mountains.
Here on the 2nd section of the path, the ascent is quite interesting and quite long. First, as it were, you rise up, under you there is a valley and forests, then the lift slides, as it were, horizontally over the valley, and then sharply upwards again. Some sections of the way we were completely in the fog. By the way, you can also come to the first segment and the second one by car, there are houses everywhere, people live. Are there any observation decks on Mottarone, they didn’t look, one continuous fog. But there are Alpyland slides, which are at an altitude of almost 1500 m - this is the highest point there, a chair lift raises there. But everything was closed. And from there, with the last flight at 17:40 we went down to Stresa. Not to say that we were crazy about this ascent to the mountains, but there was no particular disappointment either.
Returning to the hotel, we again walked through the old city, flooded with tourists ...
It should be noted that in Stresa, as in all resort areas, despite the evening, all the shops were open, which cannot be said about Lugano.
This is where our Italy ends and then our France begins.
