More amici! It's so nice, on a crisp autumn day, to look at photos sent from friends. Here are a few more photos sent in by readers from their time here. First, there are Margaret and Colin, who came to Stresa as part of a package tour from the UK that went quite awry in several ways, but I give them the award for making lemonade from their lemons. 

Margaret and Colin above Lake Orta in mid September

Colin with Fabri. Fabri brought the couple on a private tour to Orta.

Margaret wrote:

We've fallen in love with Maggiore - the scenery is fabulous and we had lovely weather (pity about the mozzies!). We had a terrific time at Lake Orta. Fabri was great - knowledgeable and interesting - AND we had him to ourselves! Went on the Maggiore Express on Sunday - superb scenery and we managed an hour in S Marie Maggiore (lovely little town, loads of character), then a stroll along the lungolago in Locarno and onto an early ferry for an hour on Isole de Brissago (fascinating plants, but the wrong time of year for colour - most flowers were over) and finally the last ferry back to Baveno - fabulous day: I nearly filled up my camera's memory card!

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I also received photos from Puja, who's husband brought her to Stresa for a long weekend in late July to celebrate her birthday. They were here at the perfect time to see the hydrangea in full bloom along the lake. 

Puja's husband had contacted me several times in preparation for the trip. He gets my award for trying to plan the most romantic birthday dinner and weekend for Puja. She wrote: