On July 20th my friend Sandy, her niece and myself took the 2 hour train ride over to Italy. We arrived at the little village of Stresa at about 11:00 am ready to shop! Stresa is situated on the banks of Lake Maggiore and surrounded by the Alps in North Western Italy.
First order of business, lunch on the main plaza. Once we were satisfied by our Italian pasta we spent the rest of the day shopping and walking the little lanes that lead off the plaza in every direction.
The hand painted pottery is unbelievable! I purchased the Madonna and child painted on a piece of ceramic and attached to a piece of wood from a very old demolished building.
Then we discovered the wine shop owned and run by a local family. We spent a long time sampling wines, limoncello, oil olives and different liquers. My suitcase was loaded down with 3 bottles of wine, limoncello, oil olives and pear liquer.
There are three islands off the coast of Stresa, once owned by the wealthy Borrommeo family. Napoleon visited the estate in 1797.We took a water taxi out to Isola Bella, once there we took a tour of the house and walked around the beautiful baroque gardens.
The boat ride itself is only about 10 minutes. As we approached the dock
to catch the large boat run by the city, we were approached by numerous
Italian men enticing us with their own boat. We ended up boarding a small craft with a very nice man. It ended up that we were his only passengers, so we got a private ride over. He assured us he would be waiting for us in a few hours time, at 2:00 there he was!
One thing I discovered this weekend is that once you get out of the big overwhelming Italian cities the people are
very warm and charming.
