Italy Lakes Guide 2025: Como, Garda, Maggiore and the Hidden Lakes

How the Borromeo family banking dynasty built Europe's most theatrical baroque garden — and why an island garden requires its own maintenance army

The Borromeo family (the Milanese banking dynasty established in the 14th century — the same family that produced Cardinal Carlo Borromeo, the Archbishop of Milan who was canonized in 1610 and whose nephew Federico Borromeo founded the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana) accumulated the Lake Maggiore islands through purchase and gift from the 14th century onward. The Isola Bella garden (commissioned by Count Carlo III Borromeo in 1632, built over 39 years using the quarried stone from Monte Motterone opposite as the structural foundation for the ten terraces — an engineering project that reshaped the island entirely, adding approximately 40% to its surface area through retaining walls and fill) is the most labor-intensive single garden project in Italian history. The specific maintenance challenge: Isola Bella has no natural water source (every drop of water for the garden irrigation comes by boat or pipe from the mainland); the topsoil was brought by barge from the lakeside farms; and the exotic plants (the lemon trees, the citrus, the Mediterranean plants that survive in the lake microclimate but not on the mainland at this latitude) require annual cold-weather protection. The garden employs approximately 30 full-time gardeners year-round — among the highest gardener-to-garden-area ratios of any Italian garden, reflecting the specific challenge of maintaining 17th-century baroque ambition on an island with no soil and no water.