The Lakes of Northern Italy

The names all are familiar: Maggiore, Lugano and Como. After hectic Milan, Mom, Dad and I spent a couple days chilling out in this beautiful area an hour north. It's exactly what the Milanese have probably been doing for centuries. And NO, we didn't see George Clooney.

First stop, Lake Maggiore and the town of Stresa. Two of the Borromeo Islands just off the coast of Stress are Isola Bella (foreground) and Isola Pescatori (smaller off to the back left).

The Borromeo family has a summer palace on Isola Bella and it and the gardens are open to the public. Nothing makes Mom happier than visiting gardens, so this was an obvious highlight of the trip.

In 1935, Mussolini, British and French diplomats met here to sign the "Stresa Front Agreement" to try and dissuade Germany from starting WWII. It fell apart when Italy attacked Ethiopia and joined forces with Hitler.

To get to the gardens, you must go through the palace. Downstairs is this amazing grotto (a place to escape the heat) that is lined floor to ceiling with stones and marble. I post this picture for a secondary reason. You see my Dad actually reading a plaque or looking at something. Perhaps one of the few times I saw this happen on the trip.

You exit the palace and enter the amazing terrace garden and see this wall.

And peacocks!

The fragrance of the place is amazing and roses were in bloom. This picture also captures what my Dad came for. Getting my Mom and I to pose for him.

We stayed an an Inn in the town of Cadenabbia on the western shore of Lake Como. A camera is simply unable to capture the feeling, majesty, grandeur and drama of the place. So I won't even try.

Our inn, and the balcony on which we dined, had this view of town of Bellagio.

From high in the hills above Lake Como you can see how Bellagio is situated at the tip of a peninsula. That tree laden "bulge" is called the "Punta Spartivento" or Point that separates the wind.

We had amazing weather the entire time in the Lakes District. Only on the day we left, did we see clouds, but they couldn't detract from the beauty of the place.