Our third May holiday in Switzerland finally landed on a weekend, so it was time to plan a trip. We decided on a little lake town in Italy called Stresa, purely based on the fact that it was far enough to feel like a destination and close enough to enjoy 2 full days there. The more I talked about it, the more people had not heard of it, which made me a little worried. I figured worst case scenario, we would at least get to eat some good Italian food.
{favorite meal of the trip: seafood pasta}
We arrived at 1 in the afternoon on Saturday, found our hotel, walked around, and by 4pm we had seen the whole town 5 times. We also noticed that we were at least half the age of most of the tourists on the island. It’s no wonder why no one had heard of it- I was asking the wrong age group! The rain kept us away from any summer lake activities, so we spent a lot of money on Italian leather goods and spent some quality time in cafes.
{shopping in the rain}
Fortunately, Sunday morning brought us better weather. We hopped on a boat taxi that took us to two islands on Lake Maggiore. First up was Isola Pescatori. A cute island with restaurants and tourist shops.
{cafe on Isola Pescatori}
Next up was Isola Bella. There was a fancy mansion owned by some wealthy Italian man, so we toured around and enjoyed our 1 hour of sunshine in the gardens.
{testing out our new remote control on Isola Bella}
We even met a couple of white peacocks. They were pretty cool even though they wouldn’t show us their feathers.
{one of about 10 white peacocks in the gardens}
Despite the rain, a weekend full of Italian food, gelato, shopping, and Island hopping was just what the doctor ordered.
