Just enough news to enjoy with your cappuccino...

It seems that approval has been given for the construction of a new ticket office at the Carciano imbarcadero. If you have taken a ferry from the Carciano station, you know that it does not have a true ticket office, or a place to wait for the boats, but instead a small, one-person hut that is open only certain hours. The new ticket office rendering shows a traditional style building, which, according to Mayor Canio di Milia, is necessary to improve the look of this Carciano dock, which is of prime importance to Stresa and the many international tourists who visit there, either to take a boat or to ride the gondola up to the gardens or Mottarone.

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2013 Will Begin New, Longer Official Tourism Season In Stresa

Next year, the Borromeo Islands will extend their touristic season. They have set a closing date which matches that of Villa Taranto, Sunday, November 3, 2013. In the past, the palace and Isola Madre have closed in late October, such as this year's October 23 closing. The opening date next year will be March 16, 2013. Changing habits of tourists has been cited as the reason for the lengthening of the season. Travelers seem to be making trips much more frequently outside of traditional 'seasons', and these longer hours will allow individuals, as well as groups, to continue to visit these locations. This change will cause many others in Stresa, as hotels, shops, restaurants, ferries, water taxis, and more all adapt to the new schedule, which, while experimental for now, is hoped to become permanent and hopes to add the Parco di Villa Pallavicino to the ranks as well.

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Stories Of Crime On Lago Maggiore

Don't worry, not real crime! Just a newly published collection of stories, in a book titled Delitti d'acqua dolce, Crimes on the Sweet Water. The 'crimes,' twenty of them in all, are the winning stories of a contest earlier in 2012, called Giallo Stresa, which asked for literary submissions of fiction in the crime genre, and all having to take place in the Lago Maggiore area.  The anthology is promoted by Ambretta Sampietro, and the proceeds are designated toward Villa Taranto, to aid the renovation of the garden, which was greatly destroyed by a tornado last August. The contest, and new anthologies, are expected to become an annual event. For now the book is published only in Italian, and is available in shops all around Stresa.