The westernmost of Italy’s great lakes straddles the Lombardy-Piemonte border and pokes its head into Switzerland. The southern half was from the 15th century a fiefdom of the powerful Borromeo clan. Maggiore’s development as a holiday retreat for Europeans began in 1800 when Napoleon’s Simplon highway from Geneva to Milan skirted its shores. Maggiore is neither as resorty as Garda nor as breathtaking as Como, and while the triplet Borromean Islands are stunning, few of Maggiore’s other diversions can compare. Still, all this can play in Maggiore’s favour if you’re looking to avoid the over-development of Garda and the crowds of Como.
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Morning
Be at the Stresa ferry dock by 10am and buy a day pass for island hopping as well as admission tickets for the Isole Borromee sights.
Ride to Isola Bella first to spend two hours exploring the collections of the Borromeo Palace and the intricate gardens above it. Then catch the 12:25pm ferry for the short hop to the Isola Superiore, where you can settle into a lakeside table on Verbano’s terrace for lunch with a view (book ahead of time (see Verbano, Isola Superiore (Isola dei Pescatori)).
Mid-Afternoon
Wander the tourist/fishing village after lunch before continuing on the boat to Isola Madre.
The Borromeo Villa on Madre takes only a half hour to wander, but the vast botanical gardens surrounding it are a delight, thick with exotic flora and populated by colourful exotic birds. The multi-lingual map handed out explains many of the rare specimens and is remarkably informative too.
Try to catch a return ferry that stops on the mainland at Lido/Funivia for Montarrone – one stop before Stresa proper. Get off here and stroll along the little-used waterfront promenade for the final 20-minute walk back to downtown Stresa. You will be rewarded with a lovely late-afternoon view of the islands on your left, and romantically crumbling, abandoned villas on your right.
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This sprawling modern town was once a stronghold of the Borromeo family, but its fortress was razed by Napoleon. The only lasting monument to the great family is a disconcertingly enormous 17th-century bronze statue of San Carlo Borromeo. Clamber up a ladder-like stair to the head of the 23-m (75-ft) colossus to peek out through his pupils at the 17th-century church below. The road leading to this shrine was meant to be lined with 15 devotional chapels, but only two were finished.
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Locarno’s neighbouring town on the Swiss end of the lake has been a favourite haunt of such cultural giants as Kandinsky, Freud and Thomas Mann. It has a split personality: there’s a Harley rally and Jazz festival in July, and a Rolls Royce gathering and classical music concerts in September. The streets are lined with topend boutiques and sights such as the 16th-century church Santi Pietro e Paolo. Up on the mountainside is Monte Verità. From the late 1800s to the 1940s this was a utopian community of “air-light” wooden structures that housed artists, vegetarians and nudists.
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Laid-back little osteria serving home-made pastas and simple, hearty seconds under vaulted ceilings.
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The name “Riviera” is apt, for this sheltered promontory has a truly Mediterranean clime, enabling citrus trees and camellias to flourish, despite its relatively northern locale. The lake vistas, steep medieval streets and 18th-century houses give it a pleasant feel. Most striking are the scraps of islands just offshore, sprouting glowering castles built by lake pirates in the 1400s (see Lake Maggiore) and used by the Borromeo clan as a defensive line against the Swiss.
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By the Swiss border at the base of a rushing mountain stream near the pretty Orrido di Santa Anna gorge, Cannobio dates back more than 3,000 years, though its steep, crooked pebble lanes and old plastered buildings are mainly medieval. The harbour is filled with restaurant tables in summertime.
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A modern lakeside retreat with a pool and tennis courts.
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One of Italy’s top hotels (with a starring role in Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms ), this is as sumptuous as you’d expect at the prices.
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One of Maggiore’s top hotels since 1870, with spacious rooms, courtyard and lawn.
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In 1925, European leaders met in this grand dame of a hotel to sign the Locarno Treaty (which failed to prevent World War II). Public spaces are Belle Époque genteel; rooms are modern.
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Hotel price categories
For a standard, double room per night (with breakfast if included), taxes and extra charges.
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Restaurant price categories
For a three-course meal for one with half a bottle of wine (or equivalent meal), taxes and extra charges.
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