Lakeview Apartments!!

Lakeview Apartments!!
Bella Vista 1-bedroom holiday rentals

Heart of Stresa Apartments!!

Heart of Stresa Apartments!!
Stresa Apartments 1-bedroom holiday rentals

SEARCH THIS BLOG

STRESA WEATHER

STRESA WEATHER
Click for Forecast

2019 DATES COMING SOON

2019 DATES COMING SOON
CLICK HERE!

STRESA MAP

Malpensa / Stresa Bus

Malpensa / Stresa Bus
Available From 1 April to 13 Oct 2019 - Click to Book -
Saturday, August 25, 2012

FYI: Stresa's General Store




Uh-oh... you caught your jacket on a fence and ripped a hole in the seam....

Or, you've arrived at your hotel and have started unpacking. You discover you forgot a hairdryer and your room doesn't have one...

Or, you forgot your plug converters...

Or maybe the kids are getting cranky and need a new distraction for tomorrow's long car ride...

Or the batteries in your camera/watch/remote control just died. What to do?

What do you do when any of these or other little annoyances occur during your trip? You don't want to waste too much of your precious vacation time doing errands, and you don't even know where to go to do them.
(  Continued...  )

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Food: Buffet di Ferragosto


As they say, "Life's short... Eat dessert first."

Remember a little while ago when I wrote about the breakfast buffets at many of the large hotels along the lake? And how they are open to all, not only to guests? Well, here's another way you could have pretended to be a guest at the Grand Hotel des Iles Borromee. Each year, on the mid-summer Ferragosto holiday, the hotel prepares a buffet dinner of extraordinary proportions. These photos were published on Facebook by the hotel, of the food and the decorations, taken before the guests arrived at 8 pm on August 15, 2012. By nightfall, the garden was full, and many of these platters empty.   
(  Continued  )

Friday, August 17, 2012

News Bites: Little Bits Of News From Stresa


Just enough news to enjoy with your cappuccino.

In this edition of News Bites we have tweets and streets and then more tweets.


The excitement continues! Following the news that this blog has been featured in Susan Van Allen's book, 100 Places in Italy Every Woman Should Go, comes more news from Susan: We have been tweeted, and retweeted! After tweeting about Stresa Sights, Susan reported that her tweet was retweeted by Frances Mayes, author of Under the Tuscan Sun. I'm not sure that I've been tweeted about by anyone before, ever. How very exciting to have our first tweets be from such wonderful authors. I also never thought I'd have occasion to say 'tweet', and I've now said it eight times in this post. Exciting times indeed...
(  Continued...  )

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Images Of A Stresa Of Long, Long Ago


"View of Stresa and of Isola Bella in Lago Maggiore"

Shopping around in Stresa this summer, old prints and reprints have been catching my eye everywhere. I often find myself lost for a good long time, going through a stack of old prints safe in their plastic sleeves, or looking intently at racks of postcards featuring them. I find them fascinating...

For example, the print above. Here it is again, a little larger:


It takes only a few seconds to place the view. There is Isola Bella after all... and that must be the road that has become the main street, Sempione Nord, which continues all the way to the Sempione Pass... and oh yes, that must be the church, Chiesa Parrocchiale di Sant'Ambrogio, the one that is now across from the big parking lot at the imbarcadero. There's the mountain in Baveno, already being quarried even then we can tell... and little Mt. Orfano to its right. And that's all. No hotels, no Lungolago, no port for boats. But what's incredible to me is not so much what has changed since this time, but what HASN'T. Here is proof that Isola Bella looked then as it does now, for all these centuries, even when there was nothing else here. How much more impressive it must have been then ... a magnificent vision, this creation, in the middle of a vastly undeveloped bay. 


Yes, Isola Bella is very much unchanged.


In the image above, which is a scene from 1845, we can get an idea of what was taking place where now there are luxurious hotels and the Lungolago. This appears to be Corso Umberto I in Stresa, perhaps that is the church again on the far left? And the land seems to have been used for grazing. This is possibly about where Hotel Regina Palace, or Bar Verbanella on the other side of the street, are located today.

I can idle away many hours like this... immersed in these pastoral images of a Stresa that used to be.
(  Continued  )

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Seen In Mergozzo: Vicolo


I love wandering around the back streets of tiny Mergozzo, where many of the structures date from the 1600s. This little vicolo, alley, is just off the lakefront. Can't you just imagine a carriage with horses passing through that door?


Sunday, August 5, 2012

You Can See Venice In A Day From Stresa


Stresa to gondola ... in three hours.

I've just been on vacation. No, not in Stresa ... from Stresa. Yes, even though Stresa is gorgeous, and relaxing, and a wonderful destination that I have spent these years promoting to all of you, every now and then one must go and see other parts of our big beautiful world. I went on a cruise that departed from Venice. And I want to share my vacation with you to give you an idea of what you can do, or incorporate into, your holiday in Stresa. (see... it is still about Stresa anyway!)     (  Continued ....  )

Friday, August 3, 2012

News: Stresa Sights And 100 Places In Italy Every Woman Should Go


Am I happy today? You bet I am! We've just had some very exciting news! We've discovered that Stresa Sights has been included in the list of Online Resources in the new updated edition of Susan Van Allen's wonderful book, 100 Places In Italy Every Woman Should Go. This is such an honor, and I am thrilled to be included in this guidebook and in such great company. Susan, grazie dal cuore. From my heart, thank you.
(   continued ....  )

Follow On Facebook For More Posts

PLANNING A TRIP TO STRESA?

PLANNING A TRIP TO STRESA?
A Top Attractions Starting Point

SOME IMPORTANT DATES


Visit The Stresa Tourist Office For Complete Event Schedules

VACATIONS AND WORKSHOPS

VACATIONS AND WORKSHOPS
Before or after Stresa, plan more of your trip to Italy with Villa Vita!

CURRENCY CONVERTER

CURRENCY CONVERTER
Click here for a fast and easy currency converter.

STRESA SIGHTS by DANA KAPLAN

STRESA SIGHTS by DANA KAPLAN