Lake Maggiore

Yesterday I went to Lake Maggiore with Paola and Federico. We took a ferry all around the lake (well the bottom part of it... It's actually pretty big) and stopped at various places. We started in Angera and then went Santa Caterina which is an old monastery and church built into the hillside of the lake. Then we took the ferry to Stresa, a cute but touristy village along the lake.



From Stresa we went to Isola Bella, a small island on the lake. I think this was my favorite part of the day. On the island was the Palazzo Borromeo and its beautiful Italian gardens. The palazzo was so ornate and had these incredible grotto rooms on the lower level that were lined with rocks and looked out onto the lake. The gardens were beautiful too and had white peacocks walking around in them.



Next we briefly went to Isola dei Pescatori (pictured) and then back to Stresa for a gelato. And then guess what happened? We heard a clap of thunder and knew that the daily afternoon storm was on its way just as we got onto the ferry for the 45 minute ride back to Angerae. We had heard that it was raining down south where the Taravellas live and Federico pointed out that the storm clouds we saw on the lake were coming from the north. This meant that the two storms were on track to combine to create the perfect storm. And they did. While we were on the ferry. Luckily we could sit inside and watch everything from a nice dry place. At times it was raining so hard that the ferry would stop because they couldn't see where we were going. It hailed. I got a little seasick (lame).



We finally made it back to the safety of Paola's car (after Federico sacrificed himself to get the umbrella) and met Giacomo and Gianni for dinner. Yum!

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry