24th day of Sumer Vacation: in which we voyage to Isola Bella

Isola Bella is one of the three habitable islands in Lake Maggiore. (The other two are Isola dei Pescatori and Isola Madre) It's home to astonishingly beautiful gardens and a castle stuffed with artwork. The grounds are home to several white peacocks and peahens, which make the most astoundingly awful screeching noises.

Isola Bella was the center of command for the region for many years. Napolean and Josephine stayed 2 nights on the island. The Strasa Conference of 1935 was held there, in one of the final attempts to curb the ambitions of Hitler's Germany.

The ferry ride is only about 10 minutes each way, with great views for all of it. The castle itself is gorgeous. The grotto in the lowest level is crazy-cool, although I don't know what those rooms actually got used for. Also, the view into the lower gardens from the grotto rooms was just gorgeous:

There are several nice-looking cafes and restaurants outside the grounds, but we hadn't budgeted time to eat there. Next time, I would build in an extra hour and have a drink and a snack at one of the restaurants by the docks. As it was, we just had lunch at the (not very impressive) cafe within the garden. The high point of lunch was definitely my MIL's flower salad:

The gardens are extensive. Not as many flowers as I'd thought, but lots of amazing statuary.

On the way back from the ferry, we had gelato at a great place - Langola del Gelato -  I had "perla nera" which translates to Black Pearl but is actually chocolate with rum and chunks of dark chocolate. Nice music outside; too. I didn't take photos of the musicians but I should have - they really looked like The Civil Wars although their singing wasn't quite as good. They were incredibly good for street musicians and we threw a few Euros into their guitar case on our way out.

27th day of Summer Vacation: in which we visit Isola Madre

Isola Madre is another of the three inhabited islands in Lake Maggiore. We left on an early ferry, and took 5 stops to get there; it's about a 30 minute ride. The day was hazy and overcast, but not too hot.

Similar to Isola Bella, the two primary attractions are the garden and the castle. On Isola Bella, you have to do the castle tour first to get into the gardens. On Isola Madre, you have to walk through a large part of the garden to get up to the castle. The walks direct you to a single path around the island and upwards, with potential alternate routes clearly blocked off and labeled.

The gardens were lovely and cool at 10am. The flowers were amazing, especially the "water lily as large as my head" varietal.

We saw a number of tiny little lizards:

And the grounds, generally, were just lovely and provided some great views:

We then went into the castle, which felt less formal than the one on Isola Bella. The pictures are larger and better lit, and are very nice. Some of the Borromean countesses were gorgeous! Or else had very talented portrait painters. There was not as much explanation of the paintings, which I did miss. The castle held three giant puppet theaters and many mannequins in period costume, which were more than slightly creepy.

We then went outside to see more of the gardens, and had foccocia and croissants by the water lily pond. My MIL got mobbed by some very aggressive sparrows.

We admired the aviary and the free-roaming birds. The island is famous for its white peacocks, which are loud and like to scream at you.

We also saw a number of blue (traditional?) peacocks...

 plus one fantastical creature that seemed to be a mix of the two. Edited to add: possibly this cool bi-colored bird was a peahen.

We then rode the ferry back to Stresa, and I confess that I failed to get a good photo of Isola Madre going in either direction.

The rest of the day: met up with DH and Younger Son at the dock. Went to get sandwiches, once again at Cicinin Panini al Metro. All were very good, although the vegetarian one had beets so I just had a small nibble of it. Also gelato, again at Langolo del Gelato. I really was tempted to get more Perla Nera, but I saw they had Violetta and I love that flavor, so I ended up with Violetta and Mandarinetta and both tasted great but were rather too sweet. This is why I usually get chocolate, coffee, or nut flavored gelato.

I might not bother blogging about packing up and driving over to Lake Como; the weather was lousy and I didn't take any good pictures.

Flowering Tuesday

The previous owners of this house put in some wonderful flowers on three sides of the house. I didn't get a good shot of the irises and peonies in the back yard, but here's what the left front of the house is sporting:

And here's what the right side and east corner are showing off:

MIA?

I've actually been knitting up a storm, but am 'way behind on the photos, as always. I finished two pairs of Evangeline mitts for friends; they're identical, even coming from the same skein of Cascade 220 Superwash (and knit on #5 needles), so I only offer one photo here:

And in other news, I love flowers and I love my new camera: