THE LAKE DISTRICT
Part One of our vacation in Italy had us off to a rocky start in Milan. Things improved up at Lago Maggiore. Those of you who know Mrs.T well are aware of her love of flora. As she tells below, she definitely was in her element in the Piedmont. The tour planner/editor made certain that there were plenty of opportunities for her to indulge her passion at each stop in his country of heritage.
As you will surmise the stories trail our actual location a bit in time. Wisely, days were left free to shop for food, wash clothes, and to prod The Muse into writing. However, she is not the swiftest typist, and it also takes time to distribute our offerings. But if things keep on track you should have a good picture of our trip.
As the train rolled along the Italian landscape changed from flat to hilly and we were in the Piedmont. Of course I was mostly sleeping as I do on trains. (Planes, trains, or automobiles, it doesn't matter -dt) These are the hills that lead up to the Italian Alps. On fairly clear days you can see the tops of the snow covered Alps peeking over the lower hills. In some of the valleys are lakes most of which get their water from the melting glaciers. This is the Lake District which many people think is the most beautiful part of Italy. In fact Queen Victoria used to come here for her vacations - as well as Churchill and lots of other famous people. (Lido Palace Hotel in Baveno -dt) If it was good enough for the Queen it is good enough for me.
A lovely lady, Fiammetta, met us at the train station in Stresa to take us to our charming rooms in her home. She and her father run a guest house in Carciano di Stresa. From our rooms on the ground floor we had views of Lake Maggiore and the hills. The rooms had very high ceilings, maybe 12 feet high. The hugh embossed wooden furniture was maybe 8 feet high. (Things were high and tall but not quite that high and tall -dt) The curtains and couch were decorated with roses.
This whole town was a place of gardens. All the houses had their own little gardens. Many of the plants in bloom, such as rhododendrons and azaleas, were familiar to me. They made swaths of color against the hillsides. Walls and arbors were blues with hanging wisteria. Poppies of every color bordered paths dotting the stones with random beauty. Pansies in enthusiastic clumps froliced here and there. I was enchanted.
Dan, however was slightly overwhelmed by me saying, "Look at this, look at that" constantly; he might have developed whiplash trying to follow my enthusiastic sightings. Well the first thing we did was take a ferry out to Isola Bella. This was the palace and garden of the Dukes of Borromeo. The garden was terraced and a mostly formal garden complete with an amazing grotto full of lots of statues. On the top was a unicorn prominently displayed because the unicorn was part of the family crest. There were lots of unicorn tapestries in the palace also. Pictures of a unicorn poking a lion with his horn. And a unicorn poking a leopard. Not very encouraging if your crest was a lion or a leopard. A rather aggressive family these Borromeos. Evidently the Duke built the palace to upstage his brother who took the traditional family palace on another island. I'd say he probably succeeded. (The family included bankers and a cardinal who later was canonized. The family still owns most of the islands -dt)
In addition to a lot of familiar plants were many I did not know. There were strange lilies. The climate is odd in that a lot of subtropical plants grow there. Giuseppe told me that sometimes it snows but it melts almost immediately and does not seem to hurt the flowers. (There was snow not long before we came -dt) There were a lot of palms and such which grew well and also desert plants which needed to be in special gardens. Among the formal gardens we saw lots of statues. White peacocks wandered down the paths. There were rows of orange and lemon trees on different terraces. Unfamiliar odors enticed me. I loved the gardens! Dan asked me if I liked the gardens. Is the pope Catholic?
Our next expedition was supposed to be on a cable car (the funivia -dt) up the mountain (Mattarone, 1491m -dt) to see the alpine gardens. But it was cold and rainy and this did not seem like a good idea. (I did not miss it -dt) So we went to visit the Botanical Garden (At Villa Taranto -dt).
As you wandered down the paths you heard different kinds of music playing in different areas. There was the tulip maze, past its prime but still with literally thousands of tulips blooming around a contorted path. (Originally there were 50000 tulips in the garden for April -dt) There was a Rhododendron Glen. There was a gathering of azaleas. This garden was not formal at all. (Maybe not in the British sense but it was well organized -dt) Different arrangements of plants flowed up and down the hillsides. And even more wonderful, from my point of view at least, many of them were labeled. There were what looked like palm trees with very hairy stems but I discovered these were tree ferns. There were of course hundred of kinds of different flowers. I was in heaven.
From the Botanical Garden: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmbeRzwy
 | flic.kr Explore this photo album by dxterrible on Flickr! | |
We rode home on the boat and caught a taxi back to our rooms. Because of the loss of Dan's phone we could not call taxis. But our hosts generously drove us to the ferries and we were able to hail ones at the ferry stop. We did enjoy hiking up and down the hills to visit the little grocery store, the pizzeria, and St. Blaise a lovely little church, all in our neighborhood. After a few lovely, peaceful, flower-filled days we were off to historical, political, artistic Florence.
Around Stresa and Isola Bella: https://www.flickr.com/gp/9151458@N07/B494zS
 | www.flickr.com Explore this photo album by dxterrible on Flickr! | |
As you will read later Florence is quite a bit different than Lago Maggiore. We are having a good time in a different way. The woes of Milan are mostly behind us although the lack of a phone has hampered us a bit.
Stay tuned.
Dan and Rebecca
www.casa-de-terrible.blogspot.com
 | www.casa-de-terrible.blogspot.com We are still around. You may have thought we fell off the planet as we have not posted anything in quite a bit. But we are doing well at our winter home, mostly normal activities. | |
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