Flashback: In which we visit the Borromean Islands

Last summer, we spent most of two weeks at a campground in the lakes region of Northern Italy. While we were there, we visited a number of sites in the area, and also spent some time most afternoons down at the beach. As we have slow days in Paris, I will try to fill in some of the things that we did while we were in Italy.

The campground that we stayed at was on Lake Orta, one of the smallest and least popular of the Italian Lakes. That was one of the reasons that we chose it; we wanted something a bit calmer as a place to stay, and it was one the few campgrounds with a private beach instead of a swimming pool.

One of the places that we most wanted to visit while we were in Italy were the Borromean Islands, which are located on Lake Maggiore, the next lake over. So one morning, we loaded up the car and headed out, following the directions given by our handy GPS unit. After about 10 minutes of driving, we arrived at a large barrier, and a road closed sign, so, of course, we turned around. And listened to the GPS direct us, in an extremely polite voice, to "where possible, make a U-turn" which we ignored. Finally, about 20 minutes later the GPS gave up and directed us the rest of the way to Stressa, which was where we could catch a boat to the Borromean Islands.

We took a ferry from Stressa to Isola Bella, where we wandered around until we found the entrance to the villa. Sapphire oohed and aahed. Ezio gamely walked through with us. And Cherry tried to touch everything until I put her into the Ergo, at which point she whined and squirmed. After we had seen the inside of the house, complete with rooms decorated in a shell motif, to suggest Neptune's palace, perhaps, we went out into the gardens. Lots of flowers, and peacocks, which freaked Cherry out because they were so big and loud (and aggressive). The kids walked through the sprinklers they had set up to keep down the dust along the footpaths.

After a pizza lunch eaten along the dock, we boarded the ferry and rode to Isola Madre, where we walked through another villa, this one distinguished in my mind by the rooms of marionettes and puppet theaters. The gardens contained an enormous Cyprus tree that they are trying to nurse back to health after it was uprooted by a tornado several years ago. We continued through the gardens and out to the boat dock, where we waited for the next ferry to pick us up and take us back to Stressa.