Although not a large city, I think it is indicative of Stresa's status, both as a tourist destination and as a bedroom community of Milan, that it has a very well-equipped train station. Located on via Carducci , it's a short walk up from the lakefront and the majority of the hotels, and if you don't feel like walking, they'll be a taxi waiting for you. Outside, the structure has a bit of a Swiss feel; trains do come and go here from Switzerland after all, less than an hour away to the north.

The main room inside, where there are the ticket windows, is older, marble countered, wood trimmed, and spotless. There are large framed photographs on the walls, sepia toned, historical photos from long ago.


But everything else in the station seems a sharp contrast to the antique nature of this room. The cappuccino bar is large and the cappuccino is good. They offer free seating both inside and out. A TV is mounted high on one wall, usually is showing the news. There is also a full-service restaurant, called The Orient Express, with a curved glass wall serving as a divider in the center of the room. I've noticed at lunchtime this restaurant gets very crowded...

And then there is the newsstand. This may be, hands down, one of the best-stocked little news shops I've every been in. With magazines, books, and newspapers in several languages, as well as some music, games, postcards and a variety of other items, this is one-stop shopping for any reading materials you may want. They also carry a great selection of tour guides for the region. What I like to do is choose a variety of Italian magazines to bring back to the U.S., to share with other friends learning Italian. In this shop, it's hard to choose which.



That ticket I bought the day before is not dated. When I'm ready to board the train I'll punch the ticket into the yellow box to be stamped with the current date, validating it for my trip.