Borromeo Islands on Lake Maggiore

lhprophet
Sep 11, 2024
5 min read

Our first day at Baveno on Lake Maggiore was a wash out with very stormy weather. It was fine for us as we used it to get our washing done and give our legs a rest after yesterdays hiking. We cooked a paella under the awning outside but it took longer than normal due to the cool temperature. Anyway we were watching the men’s singles final in the US Open so we were quite happy.

Eventually the paella was ready and eaten and North Italian Sinner beat US Fritz in 3 sets.

Overnight there was thunder and lightning and a lot of wind. Glenn had to go outside to wind the awning in as it was flapping around. I was getting ready to go out - but he struggled against the wind and got it wound in.

Next morning the sun was out and there was no sight of any storm.

We got going walking down the hill to the middle of the town of Baveno on the lake.

We booked ourselves onto the hop on hop off boat to the 3 Borromeo islands. The islands are named after a very rich and famous Italian family who still own the 2 of the 3 islands from the 1500s.

The current members of the family are prominent in society - one a journalist married to Princess Caroline of Monaco’s son on Isola Bella which we visit today.

We arrived at the boat departure area and got tickets. The next departure was in 15 minutes time so we had a a quick look at the market stalls and then we were off.

The first island was Isola Madre - with a palace and botanical garden. The views across the lake were fabulous - as the 2 Glenn’s found.

Walking around the island we found a boat shed with a gondola.

The plants were collected from the 17th century and come from all over the world. There are many Australian and New Zealand trees and ferns - and exotic birds.

We had good views of Verbania on the north side of the island with a ferry on the way from there.

The whole palace was opulent with huge amounts of paintings and beautiful furniture.

Many paintings were from the 15th century - and we were worried how they were being looked after properly as it was quite warm in the rooms.

The views of the water and hills were lovely.

The family had staged many puppet shows and their sets had been designed by a famous theatre set designer. There were many collections of puppets for different shows.

There were a lot of table settings and pottery.

The most fabulous room was decorated in leaves and flowers.

Clelia Borromeo born in 1684 century was a mathematician and philosopher and regarded as a very learned woman by respected scientists of the time. She is known for finding the Clelia Curve. She was the daughter of a Duke and was educated by her mother and then at a convent. She married into the Borromeo family. In 1719 she founded the Clelian Academy whose members were the top scientists of the day and gathered in her palace in Milan.

She died at the age of 93 in 1777 - the year Cook discovered Australia.

After the palace we then explored more of the gardens and found the protea garden unfortunately out of season. We did find a couple of protea flowers in bloom.

The garden had been wiped out by a storm in 2006 so many bushes had been planted on the side to protect them from future storms.

The gardens around the palace were stunning with a few white peacocks around.

We then went to catch our boat to the next island - Isola Madre.

This island also has a big palace and a terraced garden.

We arrived on the island and went straight to the palace as it was lunchtime and maybe less busy.

This palace is a lot more opulent than the last one.

And I thought the last one was over the top!

The paintings again were ancient - and everywhere.

One room with lots of gold was stunning.

Another dining room was palatial.

There was a room that was specially set up for Napoleon when he stayed - and with Josephine too!

There is an etching of them and others sitting in the garden to a musical recital by an opera singer.

We later found the spot in the garden with the rearing horse statue.

Another room was known as the Stresa Conference room as it was where in 1935 UK prime minister Ramsay Macdonald , the French foreign minister and Mussolini met to discuss their response to Adolf Hitlers threat to annex Austria. They put forward a proposal to take action to stop it but didn’t follow through - missing their chance to stop WWII. Of course Mussolini changed sides and went with Adolf.

Here is the paper they all signed.

This was the most amazing room on the corner with a model of the proposed palace design - and with great views.

We then went downstairs to the grotto rooms used as summer rooms opening to the outside.

Lava, mica and various stones had been used to create beautiful designs.

There were lots of weird and wonderful artifacts in the rooms:

Sculptures

17th century horses saddles and bridles

Children’s armour

pottery from overseas .

We then went out to the gardens and found the cafe for a late lunch. They were a little bit understaffed but eventually we got a healthy lunch of poke bowl and berry smoothie. We didn’t mind chilling in the beautiful garden.

We then carried on exploring the very engineered terrace garden with lots of statues - now being restored.

We got good views from the top terrace.

There were white peacocks here - as in the last island. One had 3 chicks that followed its mum around - very cute.

We then found our boat to move on to the next island - Pescatore - the fishing island. This island had a long tradition of fishing - as it still does. It’s also full of restaurants and shops up it’s little alleys. There are no vehicles in the island so roads are not required.

We were just opposite Isola Bella where we had just been.

We met a woman and 2 daughters from Melbourne. Her mother moved to Australia when she was young - one of 10 in the family. They were with their Italian relatives - about 15 of them all together. They were pleased to find other Australians - as were we.

We found the old church with beautiful painting on the ceiling and walls.

We enjoyed looking around the port and seeing the big ferry go by.