Visiting Italy's Lake District: Part IIb - Sights in Stresa

Stresa's first appearance in historical documents occurred just before the end of the first millennium, when it existed as a small community of fishermen and peasants.  Despite the natural beauty of the area, survival was fairly difficult for the people living there.  During the Middle Ages, the town was a fiefdom of the lords of Castello and Visconti.  But it was when the Borromeo family - part of the Milanese aristocracy - became its rulers, that the magnificent buildings that have since made Stresa famous were added.  The Borromeos obtained part of the territory in 1441.  By 1653 the entire district was reunited under their rule. Throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, the Borromeos commissioned palaces to be built on the islands of Bella and Madre.  Here is a glimpse of lovely Isola Bella from the Stresa lake promenade.

Stresa passed into Austrian hands in 1719, before coming under the rule of the House of Savoy in 1748.  The town began to achieve its reknown as a tourist destination at the beginning of the 19th century, when glamorous villas such as the Villa Pallavicino and Villa Vignolo were built.  In 1906, the opening of the Simplon Tunnel facilitated widespread international travel from northern and western Europe. Trains on the London-Paris-Milan line began to call at Stresa station, and travellers and writers from all over Europe came to sing the praises of Stresa and Lake Maggiore, spreading their fame far and wide and enticing an ever larger number of people to visit.  Every year, Stresa now welcomes hundreds of thousands of tourists from across the globe.

Now we were in this beautiful spot, visiting one of the lake areas that has inspired so many, especially poets, writers, artists and landscape architects from other parts of Europe.  Guide P led us along the lake promenade, pointing out sights of interest, including fine hotels,

where tourists - like us, although lodged much more expensively - lounged in the Italian sun.

Some used the lake as a backdrop for keepsake wedding photos.

One of our stops was to the Villa Ducale, built in 1770 by Giacomo Filippo Bolongaro after returning to Stresa once having made his fortune in tobacco. At that time the villa's gardens reached as far as the lake shore. When Bolongaro died in 1780, his property was passed on to his granddaughter who was a close friend of the Abbott Antonio Rosmini.  She convinced him to make the villa his official residence.  When she died, the villa was inherited by the Rosmini family and became a prestigious cultural center.  Over the years the villa changed hands many times and became known as the Villa Ducale when it was in the hands of the Duchess of Genoa (part of the Italian Royal Family).  After the Rosmini family reacquired the villa in 1942, it was restored and inaugurated as the International Center for Rosminian Studies in 1966. The villa houses a vast library containing over 100,000 volumes.  It was undergoing reconstruction when we visited and we could not visit the library or even enter the building.

The Duchess of Genoa’s daughter, Margherita, who later became the first Queen of Italy, also used to stay at the Villa.  In 1889, the Margherita pizza, where red tomatoes, green basil, and white cheese represent the colors of the Italian flag, was named after her.

The Villa's once vaunted gardens, now somewhat overgrown, needed some tending

although there were ongoing efforts at watering during our visit. 

Not wanting to be overlooked by their neighbors, the residents of the Villa Ducale constructed a wall, apparently believing, as Robert Frost's neighbors did, that "Good fences make good neighbors," even as Frost ruminated that, "Something there is that does not like a wall ... ."

But we did enjoy our introduction to this beautiful area.