I was looking through pictures from Stresa from the first full day of Alpine Magic in Sep. 2014, and thought you all might be interested in seeing some of what we did.
The day started with a 10 minute boat trip on Lake Maggiore to La Isola Bella, the first two pictures here are of our hotel from the boat, and a picture of the boat itself as we are close to docking. We started out with a tour of the Borromeo estate, and then we had ample time to tour the gardens adjacent to the estate. I thought the gardens here were spectacular, and they even had a resident peacock.
After spending the morning on La Isola Bella, we got back onto the boat to go back to the town of Stresa for a wine tasting. The wine tasting was a great experience, we went to a back room of a local wine shop (La Cambusa), and tasted 4 different wines, along with different olive oils. The highlight was getting to spend time with Rosaria, who led the tasting. Her family owns the shop, and she had fascinating stories about growing up in Stresa during World War II.
I'm so excited to go back!
Jason