Stresa

Opposite Stresa float the Borromean Islands: Isola Bella with its seventeenth-century palace and terraced gardens where white peacocks wheel, botanical Isola Madre, Isola dei Pescatori with houses crowded on the jetty. The Art Nouveau town of grand hotels was Europe's drawing room: Hemingway set pages of "A Farewell to Arms" at the Grand Hotel des Iles Borromées.

The magnolia-lined lakefront invites a slow pace; the Settimane Musicali festival has brought great performers for decades. Behind, Mottarone climbs through woods with a view over seven lakes: Lake Maggiore stages its best show here.