You know that feeling when you're on vacation and you find someplace so magical, you fall instantly, supremely in love? You start looking at real estate, not whimsically but pragmatically, because you simply refuse to leave. All these fantasies flood in about how you’ll fix up an old house and make bread from scratch and write best sellers like “Under the Tuscan Sun”.
Take the 40 mile train ride from Milan to Stresa and you’ll know exactly what I mean.
Pulling out of Milan is harshly reminiscent of riding a PATH train through Jersey City while pulling into Stresa is like arriving on an Italian Great Gatsby set, complete with snow capped Alps in the distance. Hemingway set part of “Farewell to Arms” in the Grand Hotel des Iles Borromees in Stresa and everywhere you look, sweeping drama surrounds you. You can practically smell the history of the town seeping up from the cobblestone streets. Situated at the Swiss/Italian border on Lago Maggiore, Stresa is the gateway to Isola Bella, Isola del Pescatore, and Isola Madre. Water taxis and ferries shuttle visitors to and from the islands, launching off to provide a miraculous view of Stresa, a town that seems so perfect, you wonder if people spontaneously burst into Rodgers and Hammerstein song and Jerome Robbins choreographed dance.
I had the pleasure of staying on Isola del Pescatore, the Fisherman’s Island, an island merely a quarter mile around that was a Medieval fishing village. We checked into the one hotel on the island, Verbano, where every room is named after a flower, and settled into a large, comfortable room over looking the Lake and Alps. I noticed a small dilapidated dock just below our room so I went to investigate.
Isola del Pescatore’s moss lined alleyways are barely wide enough for a grown person to squeeze through. Windows, thrown open without care, fill the alley with the sounds and smells of families preparing meals and rehashing the day. As I made my way to the water’s edge, an elderly fisherman, fishing pole flung over his shoulder, catch in hand, made his way past me with a “Buona sera”. Like the pied piper, behind him marched no less than 30 cats, all sired by the same few males because all 30 cats looked exactly the same with only 3 or 4 variations. This tiny island in the middle of a grandiosely named lake (Maggiore means major) has been distilled in time the same way Stresa has. It’s all very romantic and enchanting; enveloping you into a world that feels part movie set, part time capsule and wholly magical.
Hotel Verbano
Via Ugo Ara 2, 28838 - Isola dei Pescatori Stresa
Tel. 0323.30408 - 32534
Fax 0323.33129
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