Lago Maggiore - Isole di Pescatori e Madre

After Isola Bella, we took the ferry over to Isola Superiore also known as Isola di Pescatori.



There was a lot of mist coming down the mountains to the lakes. This was my first time on Pescatori, it was cool to get to go to the church on the Island, the one serious sight. As far as I could tell, these busts on the altar were of popes and bishops.



The area around Lago Maggiore is very German influenced. They even have these serious recycling receptacles!



We only spent a half hour or so on the island. It's tiny, that was enough time to walk around it and get the ferry over to Isola Madre. Madre is famous for its gardens. Despite it being fall, there were lots of things in late blooming glory.



These air plants caught my eye as soon as we entered the gardens.



The water lilies were just incredible. I couldn't believe how may lilies were going in October. A few different colors were represented, pink, white, yellow, purple, and besides the open blossoms a lot of the plants had buds sticking out of the water.



We did the full walking tour of the island. You can see the wet look from the rain. Here's the guys looking out at Pallanza.



And of course we saw lots of the fancy birds. Two kinds of pheasants, more peacocks, the caged parakeets and love birds, and some fancy chickens.



After Isola Madre, we made our long way home.

Lago Maggiore - Isola Bella

Saturday we trekked up to Lago Maggiore to visit the Borromeo Islands.



We took the ferry first to Isola Bella.



We toured the palace and the gardens. Since the last time I visited, there's been a big storm. The storm did serious damage. Several giant obelisks were toppled off the terraces. Walking up to the terrace, you don't notice at first, but up close it's clear that the damage was serious.



The rose gardens are blocked off because an obelisk fell through the walls. You can just see the one hole in the wall from the falling rocks in this pic.



We could still head to the citrus area, at least. Most of the citrus is ornamental. While the rain that day was a bit of a pain when walking in the gardens, it did make the plants look awesome in the photos.



The peacocks were in the process of shedding their tails, so I haven't bothered highlighting any photos of them. But, we did see these cute fantail pigeons, just flying around the island!



We grabbed a quick lunch before heading on.

Citrus Sadness!

I finally cut open the lime I got from Isola Bella, and unfortunately it's a decorative lime. It's all pith! That central portion is about 1/2 inch in diameter.



The lemon at least was a regular lemon...

Citrus

The Borromeo Islands are known for their citrus... Here are my lemon and lime souvenirs along with the toys from Kinder Eggs.

Art

So the reason I headed up was actually to see my friend Blake's art show. He was participating in the XI Edizione del Simposio Siviera, the title of the symposium was "I love.it" There were nine artists total participating in the symposium. The opening reception was at Casa Giulia along the shore in Verbania Pallanza, a pretty great setting.



Blake had a very prolific week. I couldn't believe how many works he completed for the symposium! It was a very successful show, he even sold the work up top here.



The opening was pretty well attended, and there was even a band.



After we went for dinner with Susanne, the artist in the green clogs in the first photo, and her husband, and then headed down to the train station courtesy of one of the symposium organizers, Amedeo. It was a great night, and boy were we tired when we got on the train heading home.

Palazzo Borromeo

Isola Madre also has a Palazzo on it. It's less spectacular than the one on Isola Bella, but it has a lot of cool old furnishings. For whatever reason, there were multiple puppet theaters. Some were whole room sized, some were just medium large. This one was meant to represent hell. A lot of the puppets were really creepy.



Some of the rooms were less creepy! There were a few cool reception rooms with Murano chandeliers. This room had a garden theme with painted vines up the walls.



After finishing up touring the villa, I headed out on the ferry.



Goodbye to the islands!

Isola Madre

After Isola Bella, I took the ferry to Isola Madre. The gardens there are much more naturalistic than the Isola Bella gardens. One thing they are famous for is their wisteria.



The island was also infested with random art when I was there, including a large promenade of metal dogs.



There were also lots of birds on the island roaming the gardens. Peacocks of course, both regular and white peacocks.



There were a few aviaries in the center of the island, with parakeets, budgies, lovebirds, pheasants, and more.



The birds were pretty charming to encounter in the gardens.

Isola Bella Gardens

While the palace was pretty awesome, I would say that it was overshadowed by the gardens! The gardens take up most of the island. The center of the garden is a giant plaza, with a big tiered structure at the end of the island opposite the palace. Oh, and there were a bunch of white peacocks.



The base of the structure includes a fountain, too.



On the back of the structure are tiers of flowers and citrus trees. Walls and walls of roses. I guess that I was there at the perfect time since all the roses were in bloom.



The garden is in the Italianate style, so there are lots of ponds and statues.



This guy is holding the emblem of the Borromeo family.



Outside the garden on the few local streets, there are also some cute little mini-gardens. Not as elegant as the Borromeo's, but still awesome.

Palazzo Borromeo

The palace itself is done in a few different styles. The upper story is pretty much classic palace, with lots of great windows and stuffy furniture. The lower story is done up as a grotto, which is way funkier!



There are also lots of random artifacts in the grotto, like these 16th century riding harnesses belonging to Cardinal Borromeo.



There was also a sweet wishing grotto. I did throw in some Eurocents.



The palace also had a lot of bizarre allegorical zoological tapestries, with some very odd looking serpents...

Visiting Lago Maggiore

Blake's art show was up in Verbania. Going up to see it, I decided to take the whole day and visit the Borromeo islands too. On Saturday morning I took the train up to Stresa, which is a resort town lakeside.



There's lots of grand old hotels along the promenade where the ferry is. I love the boards that they use to post the ferry times!



First stop Isola Bella, one of the private islands of the Borromeo family. It's a beautiful spot.



Great gardens, a fancy palace, lots of art and antiquities. Kinda over the top for a family whose motto is:



Humilitas!

More photos are in the queue for the blog. Lots of beautiful stuff!