Stresa

Stresa faces the most theatrical stretch of Lake Maggiore, its grand hotels and gardens looking across the water to the baroque island-palaces of the Borromeo family. Behind it rise the slopes of Monte Mottarone; before it, boats cross constantly to islands where duchesses, painters and fishermen have all left their mark.

Why visit

Few Italian lake towns offer so much within so short a radius. From the lakeside promenade you can catch a boat to Isola Bella, where a palace and terraced garden were carved out of bare rock, or to the fishing village that still lives year-round on its tiny island. In the other direction, the hamlet of Alpino sits in the chestnut air of the mountain with an alpine botanical garden strung along its ridge. Stresa itself is built for strolling — a palm-lined waterfront, camellia gardens, gelaterie and the sort of belle-époque hotels that recall when Empress Sissi and Queen Margherita summered here. It is an easy, elegant base: two or three days cover the islands, the mountain and the town without ever feeling rushed.

Character and history

A document of 998 records the name Stresa for the first time; under the Visconti and then the Borromeo it remained a fishing and farming village until the nineteenth century, when philosopher Antonio Rosmini settled here and his friend Alessandro Manzoni followed. Fashionable Europe arrived with them: the Duchess of Genoa built her summer villa, and the Simplon railway, running along the lake shore, turned Stresa into an international resort by the early twentieth century. That layered past is still visible — in the ducal villa, in the marble memorials, and in the little municipal gallery where the sculptor Pietro Canonica, a regular guest for seventeen summers, left a collection of his plasters and marbles in 1953. The town’s signature pastry, the sugar-dusted Margheritine, supposedly took its name from Queen Margherita’s approval of a local baker’s version.

What to see

The Borromean Islands are the headliners. On Isola Bella, the Borromeo Palace grew over four centuries from a rocky outcrop into a monumental residence with state rooms, picture gallery and grottoes, while above it the Baroque Terrace Gardens descend in ten sculpted tiers towards the water, crowned by the Teatro Massimo. On Isola Madre, the largest of the islands, the Borromeo Palace preserves period furnishings and a marionette theatre, and the Botanical Garden spreads eight hectares of exotic planting — camelias, magnolias, citrus and colourful birds — that Flaubert called the most voluptuous place in the world. The third island, Isola dei Pescatori, keeps its fishermen’s lanes and the Church of San Vittore, whose stone apse survives from the eleventh century.

Back on the mainland, the Church of Saints Ambrose and Theodule serves as the town’s duomo, and Villa Ducale, the oldest villa in Stresa, houses the museum of Antonio Rosmini. In town hall, the Pietro Canonica Art Museum shows the sculptor’s gifts to the town. South along the shore, Pallavicino Park combines a nineteenth-century arboretum with a small zoological section, and in the hills above Alpino the Alpinia Botanical Garden gathers alpine flora on a four-hectare balcony over the Borromean Gulf.

How to experience

Boats are the essence of the place: buy a day pass for the islands circuit and visit Isola Bella in the morning before the coaches, Isola dei Pescatori at lunchtime — its lakeside restaurants serve perch from the lake — and Isola Madre’s gardens in the quiet of late afternoon. For the mountain, note that the Stresa–Mottarone cable car has been closed since 2021; check the local tourism office for the current status of access to Alpino and the summit, which at the time of writing means the scenic road towards Gignese. Combine a garden day — Pallavicino in spring, Alpinia when the alpine flowers show — with an evening passeggiata on the promenade and a box of Margheritine with coffee.

Practical planning

Stresa sits on the Simplon railway with direct regional and intercity trains from Milan and Turin, and the station is a flat walk from the lakefront. Milan’s airports serve the area by road in about an hour and a quarter. Season matters: spring brings the camellias and the island gardens at their freshest, summer is lively but crowded, and autumn offers clear views across the water. Palace, garden and park tickets are sold separately or in combinations on the Borromeo sites — verify seasonal opening days there before travelling, as the islands keep different calendars from the town museums.

Nearby places

Up the west shore, Baveno is the next resort town and a departure point for boat trips, while the whole arc of the Lake Maggiore area extends north through Cannobio and its Sunday market towards the Swiss frontier.