laurenmiadad
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- May 10, 2010
- Messages
- 14
Day 2 began with a lovely breakfast buffet at the Regina Palace Hotel. If all of the hotels on the trip have a breakfast this nice we will be all set. Delicious options, friendly staff, great expresso
Today's theme is Two Cultures
We all gathered at a very civil time of 9am and walked across the street to our waiting tour boats
A quick lovely ride across the lake to Isola Bella, one the three islands in our section of Lake Maggiore
This is a view of our hotel from the boat, pretty nice huh
We take a quick 10 minute ride and arrive at the beautiful island that is Isola Bella. The island has a lovely home/palazzo on it which the Carlo III of hte Borromeo family built in honor of his wife Isabella. Construction started in the 1640's and went on basically forever. The island really is a piece of rock that has been transformed into an amazing palazzo with a garden that these pictures just don't do justice to
The views were awesome
The tour guide was very informative and the history of the palazzo is very interesting with many famous guests and the Borromeo family still owns the island and actually resides in the upper floors (closed to the public) on their summer holiday
We spent several hours there that actually seemed to just fly by and we all gathered to depart back to Stresa.
The next stop was at an unbelievable wine shop La Cambusa. The unforgettable part of this stop was the owner Rosaria. She is an amazing lady who is native to Stresa. She was so warm and so genuine in describing the regional food and wine combinations she had prepared for us
The tasting was quite fun and quite delicious. My wife and I stopped back on our final day in Stresa and spent a fair bit of time with Rosaria swapping stories, sharing wine (very generous on her part) and ordering food/olive oil/ other goodies to be shipped home to good old Virginia!!
Streets of Stresa on our way to La Cambusa
Rosaria
After that lovely afternoon we had free time. We found a great Pizza shop and enjoyed some delicious pizza/antipasto and headed back to the hotel.
We enjoyed the outdoor pool which was just a lovely as the indoor one found on day one and swam until it was time to leave for dinner
Dinner was at a rural farm that was a 25 minute or so drive away ( the other side of the two cultures compared to our regal Isola Bella experience in the am)
The farm was Il Monterosso and was simply breathtaking. The view, the family that ran it, the food ( man the food)
The kids all had the treat of pony rides, petting zoo with all of their animals and the adults just tagged along and at least our crew just sat back and marveled at the views
The meal was just delicious from start to finish. Almost Everything was from the farm and was prepared family style for the group which made for a great dining experience with lots of conversation and really let the group start to bond
Parma Ham with grapefruit
Vegetables with olive oil
Tart with courgette and tomato
Risotto with radicchio
Home made ravioli with potatoes and wild porcini
Grilled veal
Chicken with rosemary
Grilled vegetables and stuffed potatoes
Tart with pear and chocolate
Delicious!!
We loaded into our van and went home. What a day of two fabulous cultures!!
We strolled Stresa as a music festival was ongoing and then made it back to the Regina Palace and couldn't believe that the trip was probably only going to keep getting better!!
Day 3 coming soon
rich
Today's theme is Two Cultures
We all gathered at a very civil time of 9am and walked across the street to our waiting tour boats
A quick lovely ride across the lake to Isola Bella, one the three islands in our section of Lake Maggiore
This is a view of our hotel from the boat, pretty nice huh
We take a quick 10 minute ride and arrive at the beautiful island that is Isola Bella. The island has a lovely home/palazzo on it which the Carlo III of hte Borromeo family built in honor of his wife Isabella. Construction started in the 1640's and went on basically forever. The island really is a piece of rock that has been transformed into an amazing palazzo with a garden that these pictures just don't do justice to
The views were awesome
The tour guide was very informative and the history of the palazzo is very interesting with many famous guests and the Borromeo family still owns the island and actually resides in the upper floors (closed to the public) on their summer holiday
We spent several hours there that actually seemed to just fly by and we all gathered to depart back to Stresa.
The next stop was at an unbelievable wine shop La Cambusa. The unforgettable part of this stop was the owner Rosaria. She is an amazing lady who is native to Stresa. She was so warm and so genuine in describing the regional food and wine combinations she had prepared for us
The tasting was quite fun and quite delicious. My wife and I stopped back on our final day in Stresa and spent a fair bit of time with Rosaria swapping stories, sharing wine (very generous on her part) and ordering food/olive oil/ other goodies to be shipped home to good old Virginia!!
Streets of Stresa on our way to La Cambusa
Rosaria
After that lovely afternoon we had free time. We found a great Pizza shop and enjoyed some delicious pizza/antipasto and headed back to the hotel.
We enjoyed the outdoor pool which was just a lovely as the indoor one found on day one and swam until it was time to leave for dinner
Dinner was at a rural farm that was a 25 minute or so drive away ( the other side of the two cultures compared to our regal Isola Bella experience in the am)
The farm was Il Monterosso and was simply breathtaking. The view, the family that ran it, the food ( man the food)
The kids all had the treat of pony rides, petting zoo with all of their animals and the adults just tagged along and at least our crew just sat back and marveled at the views
The meal was just delicious from start to finish. Almost Everything was from the farm and was prepared family style for the group which made for a great dining experience with lots of conversation and really let the group start to bond
Parma Ham with grapefruit
Vegetables with olive oil
Tart with courgette and tomato
Risotto with radicchio
Home made ravioli with potatoes and wild porcini
Grilled veal
Chicken with rosemary
Grilled vegetables and stuffed potatoes
Tart with pear and chocolate
Delicious!!
We loaded into our van and went home. What a day of two fabulous cultures!!
We strolled Stresa as a music festival was ongoing and then made it back to the Regina Palace and couldn't believe that the trip was probably only going to keep getting better!!
Day 3 coming soon
rich
Wow your day looks so wonderrful!
