In the seventeenth century the Borromeo family turned three rocks in Lake Maggiore into their private theatre: Isola Bella, a Baroque ship of palace and ten-terraced garden; Isola Madre, a botanical island where white peacocks roam; Isola dei Pescatori, a real village with nets drying. Napoleon slept here in 1797 — the room is still there — and after four centuries the islands remain in the family.
What to see
On Isola Bella, the palace halls with shell-mosaic grottoes and the pyramid garden with its peacocks; on Isola Madre, the Kashmir cypress and blooms relaying from March to October; on Pescatori, simply the village: lanes, water-edge trattorias and the life of an island inhabited year-round.
Visiting
Scheduled boats and private launches leave Stresa continuously: the classic circuit covers all three islands in a day. Palace tickets come single or combined (Bella + Madre almost always pays). Season: late March to late October, after which the palaces close and the islands hibernate.
Getting there
Stresa is an hour by train from Milan on the Simplon line; the pier faces the lakefront ten minutes from the station. By car, park in Stresa or Baveno — then it is water only.
Our editors' tip
Take the islands in the right order: Bella at early morning (gardens open with the first boats), Madre at noon, Pescatori for a late lunch — when the groups ebb back to Stresa and the village returns to its cats. And from the ferry, look back: Isola Bella seen from the water IS the postcard.