Lake Maggiore five star hotel
- Lake Maggiore 5 star hotel
Lake Maggiore is 54 km long, with a coastline of over 150km
and at its widest is 12 km. Like all the other Northern Italian
lakes it is a deep glacial basin fed by rivers; Verzasca, Giona,
and Cannobino flow into the lake. Its major outlet is the Ticino
which, in turn, joins the river Po just south-east of Pavia.
Piedmont and Lombardy are two major regions surrounding the
Lake but the most northerly section of Lake Maggiore extends
a dozen kilometres into Switzerland, the lowest point above
sea-level in Switzerland. The climate as with all these protected
lakes is mild in both summer and winter, producing lush vegetation,
with beautifully planted gardens in wonderful villas growing
rare and exotic plants. Well-known gardens include those of
the Isola Madre, Isola Bella and the Isole di Brissago, that
of the Villa Taranto in Verbania, and the Alpinia botanical
garden above Stresa. These lakes are almost like a lost world.
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 Lake Maggiore 5 five star hotel 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.
This 5 star hotel in Lake Maggiore 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”.
