Isola Bella was a rock with a few fishermen's houses. In 1632 the Borromeo decided to turn it into a garden: they brought soil from the mainland by boat, built terraces one above another and set a palace on top. The name comes from Isabella, wife of the count who began the work, and the island today has the shape they gave it.
What to see
The garden rises in ten terraces and, seen from the lake, looks like the stern of a ship: statues, obelisks, clipped hedges, and at the top the unicorn that is the family emblem. White peacocks walk about freely, and they are what the children remember. The plants are of a mild climate, because on Lake Maggiore the winters are gentler than on the plain.
In the palace are the state rooms with paintings and tapestries, and above all the grottoes on the lower floor: rooms lined with pebbles, shells, tufa and stucco, made for cooling off in summer when the air outside was heavy. It is a baroque fashion taken here to its extreme.
Visiting
The island is reached by boat from Stresa, Baveno or Verbania, with frequent crossings in season; paid ticket for palace and garden, seasonal opening, usually from late March to late October. Two hours.
Our editors' tip
Take the boat to the Isola dei Pescatori straight afterwards: it is ten minutes away and it is the exact opposite, a village of low houses and boats with no garden at all. Seeing the two islands in the same afternoon tells you more about the lake than any single visit.