The Italian Riviera is one of the most popular European destinations, but another, lesser-known location is vying for an equal share of the tourism spotlight: Lake Stresa. From Milano Centrale, it is just an hour away, but this journey can’t be measured in minutes or kilometers. It requires a shift in perspective, back to an era when royals and nobles built their dynasties in Stresa.
Storm clouds abate in time for a morning cruise to the islets along Lake Maggiore. Five hundred years ago, the Borromeo family ruled this Piedmont region as an independent state. Centuries of Borromeo dukes, cardinals and princes chose the lake’s tiny islands for their palaces and gardens, most flamboyantly the Palazzo on Isola Bella, built by Carlo Borromeo for his wife Isabella in the 16th century.
