The palace
Grand rooms.
René Hourdry — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Daderot — CC0 · Dennis G. Jarvis — CC BY-SA 2.0 · FrDr — CC BY-SA 4.0 · FrDr — CC BY-SA 4.0
Isola Bella, the «beautiful island», is one of the Borromean Islands of Lake Maggiore in northern Italy, in the Borromean Gulf 400 metres from the town of Stresa and about 70 km northwest of Milan in a straight line. It is 320 metres long and is shared by a palace, an Italian garden and a small fishing village. Until 1632 the island was a rocky crag with a tiny fishing village; that year Carlo III of the Borromeo family began a palace dedicated to his wife Isabella, who gave the island its name. Work stopped during an outbreak of plague, then his sons completed it, and the gardens were inaugurated in 1671, making the palace a stage for the parties of Europe's nobility. The large white palace stands at the water's edge, with Baroque gardens rising behind it on ten pyramid-like terraces decorated with flowers, fountains and rare trees, where white peacocks roam. Blue lake water surrounds the island, overlooked by green Alpine mountains. Visitors take a short boat ride from Stresa, tour the palace's grand rooms and the terraced gardens, then wander the fishing village. Many combine the visit with the neighbouring Isola dei Pescatori; the gardens are at their best in spring when they bloom.
Grand rooms.
White peacocks.
Little lanes.
Borromean Gulf, near Stresa, Piedmont, Italy
By a short boat ride from Stresa.
Spring, when the gardens bloom.