Today
we were up fairly early as Chris and Lyn picked us up for a drive to Lake Maggiore. It
took about 1 ½ hours to drive to the town of Stresa
on the Lake.
We had some difficulty finding a park, eventually finding one in a
street some distance from the main part of Stresa. We had driven along the main street and
parking areas seeing some of the beautiful ornate hotels that lined the
lake. After we’d parked we had a closer
view of the buildings from the footpath, which included hotels with grand names
- Regina Palace, Grand Hotel Bristol, Grand Hotel
des Iles Borromees, and Hotel Astoria. The beach that people were enjoying were
covered in small stones, not sand.
We
boarded a boat for a cruise of the lake.
We could “hop on, hop off” at different islands and also further on the
mainland. We got off at Isola Bella with
its magnificent gardens decorated with many statues. We walked around there for a while admiring
the scenery and then boarded the next boat to continue our cruise. We next stopped at Baveno, which is back on
the mainland. This was a pretty town
with some lovely old buildings. The area
was known for its mining of pink granite which was used to build the Duomo and
Galleria in Milan. There was a beautiful chapel which my
travelling companions were able to see – too many steps for me.
We enjoyed exploring this town and then
rejoined the boat for the return trip to Stresa. The weather was becoming dark, overcast,
light rain but still showed the beauty of the lake and its surrounds. The opulent hotels looked even more beautiful
from the lake.
We
drove back to Como. Terry, Sharney and I had dinner in a
restaurant in one of the squares. As we
ate another delicious meal, we watched a very loud band playing in the square. Yet another very pleasant evening in Italy.
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