Lake Maggiore is the second largest Italian lake. Very narrow but long, the lake measure 54 km and has a perimeter of 170 km. It wet Lombardia, Piemonte and shortly Switzerland. Piedmont and Lombard shore is dotted with small and very picturesque ancient villages, each with its own natural beauty and architectural features, peculiar of the lake villages, such as beautiful valleys and enchanting scenery of a rich nature, to form a backdrop to the magnificent Alpine views.
The area of Lake Maggiore richest of natural and architectural wonders is in the center of the Italian part of the lake, where at the confluence of a short third branch, almost a bulge, through Stresa and Verbania Pallanza on the two opposite shores, there are three beautiful Borromean Islands, Isola Madre (the largest of the lake), Isola Bella and Isola Superiore dei Pescatori (also known simply as Isola dei Pescatori and Isola Superiore).
The Borromeo Gulf is the richest area of natural and architectural wonders of the area circumscribed by the side of which extends from Lake Maggiore in Stresa and Verbania is located at the center of the Italian side of the lake, where there is a short third branch, the Borromean Gulf, almost a bulge at the confluence of which there are three beautiful Borromean Islands, Isola Madre (the largest of the lake), Isola Bella and Isola Superiore dei Pescatori (also known simply as Isola dei Pescatori or Isola Superiore). the hilly area close to Verbania is considered too part of the Gulf Borromeo.
Stresa, formerly feud of the family Visconti and then of the Borromeo family, since the 19th century has a great reputation for tourism thanks to the stories of great English travelers who chose it as one of the stages in their Tour. Among them: Stendhal, Charles Dickens and Lord Byron.
Ernest Hemingway settled in Stresa some chapters of his famous novel "Addio alle armi."
Stresa has always been a cultural center and tourist resort for elite.
Beautiful and majestic villas overlook on his lakeside, characterized by luxury and elegance, complemented by luxurious Art Nouveau - or older - hotels surrounded by parks and gardens, featuring the romantic and refined feelings that characterizes this "pearl" of Lake Maggiore which every year attracts thousands of tourists from all over the world.
Verbania is located not far from Stresa. It is a lively tourist center, famous for its nineteenth-century Villa S. Remigio, Villa Giulia and Villa Taranto, whose botanical gardens are among the most famous and visited Europe.
Going up the hills surrounding Verbania, you will discover dozens of small villages with typical features of the mountain villages overlooking the:
Borromeo Gulf and its islands.
In front of Stresa, in the heart of the Gulf, the three Borromean Islands create a picture by timeless charm in that fantastic view you can enjoy from 800 meters up on the hill behind Stresa.
Eleven islands are in the Lake Maggiore, three of which are the most known and visited for their beauty and location on the beautiful lake, where they contribute to form a breathtaking panorama for those who observe from the hills.
Isola Bella
not only from the name of Isabella d'Adda, wife of Count Carlo Borromeo III, but also thanks to the magnificent garden placed on the most famous terraces of the Borromeo Gulf.
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L'Isola Bella
is located in the Borromeo Gulf approximately 400 meters off the coast of Stresa and is fully occupied by the Italian gardens of the Borromeo Palace, built in the second half of the 17th century by that family, then used as a place for sumptuous festivals and theatrical performances for European royalty.
The monumental baroque palace is an elegant and sumptuous place which contains inestimable works of art such as tapestries, furniture, statues and paintings, stuccoes. Majestic is the scene of seventeenth-century Italian gardens with descebding ornate terraces, with an unusual mosaic grotto, a cool and delightful and rare and exotic plants whose flowering was designed to offer spectacular colors and scents from March to October . All helped making the island famous and even today tells the splendours of that time.
Isola Madre
is the largest of the three Borromean Islands. The Palazzo Borromeo is the is the largest residence of the Milanese family. The botanical gardens are growt in English style, realized on terraces with centennial trees and old plants and species more or less exotic, camellias, magnolias and hedges of a variety of plants and flowers. including Chinese pheasants, white peacocks and other exotic birds fly freely in a fairy-tale.
L'Isola dei Pescatori
(or Isola Superiore), is the only one, among the three Borromean Islands, which hosts a small town, with the characteristic multi-storey houses with long balconies to dry fish. The island is very small, measuring 100 by 350 meters and no cars, no engine: every 50 inhabitants, who live on fishing and tourism, move by foot. There is a square which in summer is filled with tourists looking for souvenirs from local artisans in small shops along the alleys.
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