Stresa is the grande dame of Italian lake resorts: grand hotels with wrought-iron balconies facing the lake, the Monte Mottarone cable car rising behind, and the Borromean Islands — three islands owned by the Borromeo family since the 1600s — floating in the lake like a baroque stage set. Isola Bella (the showpiece — a palazzo with terraced gardens descending in pyramidal tiers, decorated with white peacocks, grottos of shells and pebbles, and the most extravagant garden architecture in northern Italy), Isola dei Pescatori (a genuine fishing village of 50 residents on an island 375 meters long — lanes barely wide enough for two people, boats at every doorstep), and Isola Madre (the largest — a botanical garden with Kashmir cypresses and a palazzo with puppet theater collection). Hemingway stayed at the Grand Hotel des Iles Borromées and set scenes of A Farewell to Arms here. Lake Maggiore guide → · Piedmont →
Plan my Lake Maggiore trip →Isola Bella (Palazzo Borromeo + gardens): The 17th-century palazzo has frescoed rooms, tapestries, and Flemish paintings. The gardens are the main event: 10 terraces rising in a truncated pyramid, decorated with statues, obelisks, and white peacocks (real, roaming freely). The grottoes (underground rooms covered in shells, pebbles, and river stones — built as cool retreats from summer heat) are bizarre and wonderful. €17. Isola dei Pescatori (Isola Superiore): No palazzo, no gardens — just a fishing village. Narrow lanes, tiny houses, restaurants with lake-fish menus, and cats. Stay for lunch (Ristorante Verbano, €35-50 — terrace over the lake). Isola Madre: The largest and most tranquil. Botanical garden (subtropical — palms, camellias, rhododendrons) and the palazzo with a collection of marionettes and puppet theaters. €14. Combo ticket all 3: €32.
Getting there: Stresa station (Milan-Domodossola Simplon line, 1h from Milan Centrale). Boats to the islands: Navigazione Lago Maggiore ferries run every 30min from Stresa pier. Day pass €17 (hop on/off all three islands). Stay: Grand Hotel des Iles Borromées (€250-500 — the Hemingway experience), Hotel La Palma (€100-180), B&Bs (€60-110). Cable car to Mottarone (1,491m): Panoramic views over 7 lakes and the Alpine chain. €20 return (reopened after 2021 reconstruction). Combine with: Orta San Giulio (20min — the secret lake), Verbania (Villa Taranto gardens, 15min ferry), Arona (20min — Colossus of San Carlo).