Easter Weekend - Eleven Years Ago

Back in the year 2000, I was still hard at work.  I believed then that I would most likely be retiring from international work in late 2001 and returning to the US shortly thereafter.  But Destiny took my rather vague plans and changed my life enormously in unexpected, unprecedented and clearly unanticipated ways.  For me, fortunately, those changes were largely - but not all - positive ones.  Lives of millions of others have also changed since 2000 in unexpected, unprecedented and clearly unanticipated ways.  For a majority of those others, however, the changes have been tragic, devastating and financially catastrophic.   I have been fortunate, perhaps unduly - and undeservingly - so.  But I have always realized that it was sheer good luck rather than any innate characteristic of mine.  I have been grateful for that luck and very appreciative towards whatever Fates have dealt me such wonderful cards.

In any event, this quiet Easter weekend - the last full weekend of April - that precedes the last few days before I will meet up with HWMBO in Italy to tour the spectacularly beautiful Italian lakes district with him and others - has reminded me of the Easter we celebrated in 2000.  This is primarily because our upcoming visit to Italy has served as a sort of tickler.  In 2000, inspired in part by Frances Mayes's lyrical memoir, "Under the Tuscan Sun," HWMBO and I decided to drive from Geneva to spend our Easter vacation in Tuscany. 

The book inspired a movie in 2003 that bears only a tangential relationship to the story Mayes wrote.  I like both the book and the movie, each for different reasons.  It is, after all, very difficult not to like a story that is based in Tuscany.

In planning our trip, I had arranged for us to overnight in Stresa on Lago Maggiore (Lake Maggiore).  We began our travel in the morning on Holy Thursday, had a pleasant lunch at an inn in the Swiss Alps and breezed into Stresa with plenty of time left to explore a bit before having dinner.  Our hotel was modest but pleasant, with a view over a sunny outdoor dining area.

We decided to take the ferry to visit the Borromean Islands, specifically Isola Bella.  This island is almost wholly occupied by the monumental Baroque villa of the Borromean family and its spectacular gardens.

After first wandering through the villa, admiring the many works of art and listening to the history recounted by our tour guide, we made our way to the gardens to exclaim at the ornate, overlapping terraces and the compositions built into them.

We were also charmed by the unusual white peacocks that wandered through the garden at will.

So, our first day on the road passed very pleasantly and we dined and slept well that evening.  I am very much looking forward to spending time in Stresa again - we've meant to return for many years.  Now, at long last, we shall.