Welcome to Lake Maggiore, or Lago Maggiore part of the stunning
Italian Lakes, situated on the edge the Italian Alps.
Maggiore is the one of the most popular lakes and has a number
of very popular towns crossing the border between between Italy
and Switzerland.
The Grand Hotel des Iles des Borromees is one of the most charming
accommodations in Stresa, Verbania, Lake Maggiore.
The words Stresa and Borromeo are synonymous with each other
as this family took over control of the region after the Visconti
family who had ruled over the fishing town in the 15th century.
The town itself is much older and records can be traced back
to the end of the first century. As with many of the Italian
Lakes Stresa has its fair share of Villas built by the rich
and famous aristocrats of Europe (such as Villa Ducale dating
from about 1770 and Villa Dell'Orto built in 1900, Villa Pallavicino,
between Stresa and Belgirate now a zooligical park. Access to
the lakes was never easy however due to their glacial origins
and the steep mountains and snowy passes. Access was made a
lot simpler when the Simplon Pass was excavated to allow train
service from north of the Alps to pass through Stresa in 1906.
Stresa is now one of the most popular of the towns on Lake Maggiore.
To the tourist, who for the first time arrives in Stresa, is
offered a breathless sight. At the beginning a superb window
of the lake front, delineated with lines of palm trees, with
flourishing gardens and facades of majestic hotels. Then, turning
to look at the lake, enchanted, as if emerged from the same
waters the spectacular Borromean Islands (Isola Bella, Isola
Madre and Isola dei Pescatori). It is enough the splendour of
these visions to make one understand how Stresa has been able
to become one of the maximum meetings of international tourism.
The town, already at the middle half of Lungolago di Stresa
the 19th century was the most elegant place to stay, the most
visited by the international upper middle class. Others again
are the reasons of so much fame and prestige. Here art and nature
are mixed together in a way that one respects the other, here
the hospitality is to boast to generation and the cultural initiative,
that happens in the course of the year, they are the necessary
corollary of it.
The park of this 5 five star accommodation in Lake Maggiore
was established at the same time as the Grand Hotel, in 1863.
From contemporary illustrations and lithographs, one immediately
realizes what the clients (the Omarini brothers) and the designer
(the architect Antonio Polli) had in mind: in front of the incomparable
sight of the Borromean islands, they wanted to create a parterre
of flowerbeds set in the Italian style. These flowerbeds had
to be laid out beyond the street of Sempione as well, in the
garden of the landing stage constructed on an embankment by
the lake.
The Grand Hotel is constantly being renewed. It has repeatedly
been enlarged and since the early 20th century has its present
appearance. At the same time the park has adapted to frequent
adjustments, although certain peculiarities remain. Among those
worth mentioning are the fashionable quarters to the east, the
greenhouses and storage rooms to the west (an area currently
used as the Residenza del Parco and Sporting), an area to the
south set in the English manner with small detached houses and
outbuildings and, as a poster of the time read, “a huge park
and garden with tennis and croquet courts”.
