Must share this beautiful nine-minute video of Isola Bella, which was posted on the site Everybody Loves Italian. What a beautifully edited video of a visit to Isola Bella ... And incredible video of the white peacocks! Are you visiting Stresa this year? This is what awaits you...

Credit for the video goes to YouTube user Zuzu. Here's the link to the YouTube page:

YouTube Isola Bella

Here are some short video highlights produced by Stresa Festival of some of this recently closed season's 25 performances. The season, which ran from July 19 through September 7, was divided into three segments. The weekend of July 19 through July 21, called Midsummer Jazz Concerts, comprised five jazz performances. Musical Meditations (Meditazioni in musica)  was the segment from July 25 through July 28. And Between Heaven and Earth (Tra terra e cielo) featured 16 performances between August 24 and the September 7 closing. If you've enjoyed any of these performances, reminisce. If you haven't, then you can get a glimpse of what you've been missing and plan for next year. 

(   Continued ...   )

Just saw this video produced by Stresa Turismo, the official tourist office of the City of Stresa. It's only 1 minute long, but quite nice... Like it says, it's all about the lake...

Today, the 49th edition of the Stresa Festival will close, with the performance of the Stresa Festival Orchestra, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda, who is the artistic director of the Stresa Festival. They will perform Dvorak's Symphony "New Worlds" and Shostakovich's Violin concert no.1, with Greek violinist Leonidas Kavakos, at the Palazzo dei Congressi, this evening.

With the close of the festival season a special part of summer also comes to an end. Let's say farewell with a video.

If you aren't already familiar with the Festival, then this promotional video, prepared by the Stresa Festival, should make you put a performance high on your next trip must-do list.

Here is a short video that compliments nicely the last post on the 'Castles of Cannero'. The video, filmed from the balcony of a home on the lake, clearly shows just how close these small islands are to the shoreline. It is pretty much exactly from this point that I had my first view of them as well. At the end, the video also treats us to a long parting view looking westward on the lake, on a tranquil and still day.

This video gives an aerial and on-the-ground view of one of my favorite spots, little, lovely Lago Mergozzo. We've visited Mergozzo already in a couple of posts, and you probably know it's one of my favorite spots around here. I love in this video that you can really see the town nestled in the mountains, and how close the lake is to Lago Maggiore, yet how isolated one feels when here at Mergozzo.

The last few seconds of video show a quarry, and then the Duomo in Milano. This is a reference to the marble which the Duomo is built from. It is from this very quarry, in tiny Mergozzo, and it made its way to Milano on the water, from Mergozzo, then through to Lago Maggiore, and then down the river and canals into the center of Milan. It's a nice bit of trivia to know.