Lake Maggiore waterfront, Stresa.
Gorgeous. Gorgeous.
It was between this and Lake Como for today. In studying up on both, it seemed to me that there would be more to entertain my traveling companions in Stresa. I had big plans for the day – I wanted to do the Parc (previous post) and the funivia to Mattarone and take a boat out into the lake, preferably over to Santa Caterina, where there is a monastery built into a mountainside and/or Arona to see the humongous statue of St. Charles Borromeo. (Private boats and a few public were running to the Borromean Islands but the sites on them don’t officially “open” until next weekend so I didn’t put them on the list.) Well, we didn’t rise as early as I had hoped so we ended up not arriving in Stresa until 12:30. The Park took longer than I thought it would – we probably could have squeezed in the funivia but I decided it would be better for us to get back to Milan closer to seven than nine, so the Parc was all we managed of that over-ambitious plan. It was fine. It was enough. It is astonishingly beautiful there – I imagine it must be crazy in the summer, but today, though busy, was just right.
I have fond memories of Stresa. I was 13 and it was the first stop on my first trip abroad. Beautiful.
Sadly, I keep thinking, looking at these photos, of the line “Kiss me, Anakin. Kiss me like you did by the lakes of Naboo.”
[Star Wars II - Attack of the Clones, filmed in part on the shore of Lake Como]
what flavor of gelato?
Usually some form of chocolate.
My favorite is to mix the chocolate and fruit. Strawberry or wild berry. So good!