Isola Bella was a nearly bare rock, 320 metres by 180, until in 1632 Carlo III Borromeo decided to build a palace on it for his wife Isabella d'Adda, who left it her name. The soil for the garden came by boat, load after load, until it formed ten stacked terraces rising straight out of the water; his son Vitaliano VI carried the work on and it was never entirely finished. The three islands of the archipelago, with an islet and a rock, lie in the Borromean gulf off Stresa, Baveno and Verbania, and the family still owns most of them.
What to see
In the palace on Isola Bella you walk through the frescoed rooms, six sixteenth-century Flemish tapestries in silk and gold and the room that keeps the Empire furniture linked to the stay of Napoleon and Josephine. From 11 to 14 April 1935, in that same palace, the Stresa conference was held, with Mussolini, Pierre Laval and Ramsay MacDonald. Outside, the Italian garden climbs in terraces to the amphitheatre crowned by the Borromeo unicorn; the flowering rotates from March to October through roses, azaleas, magnolias, wisteria and citrus.
Isola Madre is the largest and the quietest: the garden has been kept in the English manner since about 1823, the palace is uninhabited but still furnished with Italian pieces and paintings from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, and white peacocks, golden pheasants and parrots walk the park loose. Between the two islands more than 2,000 plant varieties are counted. Isola dei Pescatori, or Superiore, is the only permanently inhabited one: a fishing village that in 1971 had 208 residents, with a single street and houses packed together. Then there are the Isolino di San Giovanni, off Pallanza, and the rock of Malghera, 200 square metres of scrub and a small beach between Bella and Pescatori.
Visiting
You go by boat: frequent departures from Stresa, Baveno and Verbania Pallanza, a crossing of a few minutes, and private boatmen on the quay offering a round of the three islands. Palaces and gardens open from late March to late October and close in winter, when only Isola dei Pescatori can be visited. The combined Bella and Madre ticket pays off if you do both. Isola Bella takes a couple of hours between palace and garden, Isola Madre an hour and a half: three islands in one day is possible, but without long stops.
Our editors' tip
We take the first boat of the morning and land on Isola Madre first: almost everyone gets off at Isola Bella, so Madre stays empty until midday, with the peacocks crossing the paths. We keep lunch for Isola dei Pescatori, at the tables over the water, and reach Isola Bella in the afternoon, once the groups have gone.
