DK Travel : Milan and the Lakes : Places of interest

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Il Vittoriale, Lake Garda

An over-the-top Art Nouveau overhaul of this villa owned by the flamboyant poet, adventurer and national hero Gabriele d’Annunzio was financed by none other than Mussolini himself – basically as a bribe to silence d’Annunzio’s criticism of the fascist government (see Il Vittoriale, Gardone Riviera).
Isola di Garda

Garda’s largest island once supported a monastery that attracted the great medieval saints: Francis of Assisi, Anthony of Padua and Bernardino of Siena. The monastery was destroyed by Napoleon and replaced in 1890– 1903 with a Neo-Gothic Venetian-style villa and luxuriant English and Italianate gardens. Two-hour tours take place twice a week and, though the admission price is high, it does include a boat ride and a snack.
Isole Borromee

From the 1650s to today, the trio of tiny islands in the middle of Lake Maggiore has drawn admirers for the gracious palaces and ornate gardens built by the Borromeo family, who still own everything but the fishing village on Isola Superiore. The islands are among Lombardy’s top attractions (see Lake Maggiore’s Isole Borromee).

Gardens, Isole Borromee
Isole Borromee, Lake Maggiore

This trio of islets off Stresa – two clad in gardens and palaces, the third with a fishing village – rank among the top 10 sights in the whole region (see Lake Maggiore’s Isole Borromee).
Lake Idro

A slip of a lake just west of Garda, Lake Idro is renowned for its trout, sailing, windsurfing and fine skiing in the surrounding mountains. Sports and the lake’s natural beauty are to the fore, while cultural highlights are Anfo’s 16th-century castle and the 15th-century frescos in the church of Sant’Antonio.
Lake Iseo

This is the prettiest of the smaller lakes, and the town of Iseo itself – with modest hotel complexes and watersports facilities – is as touristy as it gets. Further north, at Lovere, Galleria Taldini has a small but perfectly formed collection of paintings by the likes of Jacopo Bellini, Tintoretto and Tiepolo. The interior of the church of Santa Maria della Neve, on the edge of Pisogne, is a visual delight of equal merit, its abundant frescoes painted by Romanino in 1532–4 (if the church is locked, enquire at the café inside the adjacent cloisters).
Lake Lugano

Lake Lugano snakes between Italy and Switzerland, and its principal resort, Campione d’Italia, is in fact an Italian enclave within Switzerland’s borders. Campione is a slightly raucous island of pizza restaurants and gambling casinos interrupting the more staid Swiss shoreline, where to the south, outside Melide, is the delightfully kitsch Swiss Miniatur, with its vaguely accurate “map” of Switzerland, including all its major monuments reproduced at 1/25 of their actual size.

Lake Lugano
Lake Orta

This is the region’s western-most lake, and its main town – with a traffic-free, medieval centre – is Orta San Giulio. The wooded promontory on which it stands was turned into a Sacro Monte , a path lined by 20 decorated chapels, between 1591 and 1770. Boats sail from here to the tiny idyll of Isola San Giulio. At the north end of Lake Orta, Omegna is the unlikely centre of Italian industrial design. Its craft factories founded at the beginning of the 20th century developed into the giants of housewares, such as Alessi and Bialetti (see Design Objects). The Forum Museum celebrates this utilitarian art form.
Lake Varese

Varese is part of a quartet of small lakes (along with Monate, Comábbio and pond-sized Biandronno) that were popular with 18th-century Lombard landscape painters for their bucolic settings, Romanesque churches, mirror-like waters and Alpine backdrops. A few factories notwithstanding, the area is largely unchanged today. Roads rarely touch the lake shores, forcing detours into lakeside villages. This marshy region has yielded some important prehistoric finds, most especially on Lake Varese’s Isolino islet (catch a boat from Biandronno, June–September), though the actual finds are kept at the Musei Civici in Varese town.
Lakeside Castles

You can relive the Middle Ages by exploring Lombardy’s castles, scrambling up watch-towers and patrolling the ramparts like a soldier of old. The Castello Sforzesco in Milan is mostly a museum, though regular tours take you up onto the battlements. Those on the lakes can be more atmospheric, some with intriguing museums, others romantically half in ruins. The best fortresses are at Varenna, and Arco, Malcésine and Sirmione (see Grotte di Catullo, Sirmione) by Lake Garda.