Thursday, May 9, 2024

May 9: Lake Maggiore Islands Tour

 Lake Maggiore By Boat

Today was our day to spend on Lake Maggiore.  What you will NOT see in the photos below, for the most part, is what we spent the majority of the day looking at on each island.  What you WILL see are the amazing vistas of the lake from the various islands.  On the first island we were there for more than an hour and so, SO, SOOOOOO many plants and flowers.  To those of you who are into that, you'd be amazed.  I was impressed with just how many different varieties of trees and plants/flowers, etc. there were on this one island.  We then set sail for a ten minute ride to the second island, a small fisherman's island where the "main street" was about 1 1/2 persons wide.  We had lunch here.  It was "funny" in that our guide Stephanie had labeled it "Free Lunch," but in Italy what means you have "free time" for lunch - i.e. YOU pay :)  We were all somewhat surprised by that, but it was a wonderful setting for lunch and the food and wine were good.  Then the third island was less than five minutes away where we walked again for almost an hour through a HUGE mansion filled with artwork .... so obviously filthy rich and it was all designed to show off their wealth to their guests.  Interesting for sure.  But again, the views from the grounds with the lake were what made the day.  Enjoy the photos.....tomorrow we do much the same on Lake Como - the final day of the trip.

Started my day with "hot chocolate with a view" :)
And we're off
View out the boat window :O
Staircase into the garden on the first island
The Palace on the first island
Part of the formal garden
Lunch with a view
The "main street" with cafe's all along the way
The third island & the mansion
Spiral staircase in the mansion
The garden area
That evening we walked to the town center and had dinner with two couples we've become friends with - we all enjoyed pizza.....it's Italy, duh!
Joy & Tommy (from Georgia) - Don & Dee (from Clearwater)
Found out the two guys both fly F-14's in the Air Force and retired as 3-star generals :O









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