Blogs from Lake Maggiore, Lombardy, Italy, Europe

This morning the rainy had not quite departed when we boarded a boat for Isola Bella, the summer residence of the Borromeos. The palazzo on the island took 100 years, three generations of Borromeos, to build. It has about 100 rooms--25 of them devoted to a museum. The Borromeos were in residence today--all three of them. They had the other 75. The museum reflects the original Baroque style of the time with the newer parts done in the Neo-classical style. The lavish art and fixtures were done to impress their guests. The king and queen of Italy, Napoleon and Josephine, and other rich and famous people stayed there. Before World War II, Mussolini, Flandin (French PM), Mussolini, and MacDonald met there to try to resolve differences and prevent war. The meeting was a failure. There are ... read more

About 10 years ago Dax told me he was going to take me to Rome as a birthday present, I waited and waited and the trip never actually happened. It became a bit of a joke with me complaining that he never actually had taken me to Rome and him laughing about it (although I was very hurt!). Fast forward 10 years and I have finally made it to Italy for my birthday! Not to Rome, but Italy none the less! This is actually a double celebration as both my mum and I are celebrating 'big ones' this year. My mum is not a big traveller but she didn't have much choice on this as she didn't know we were all going to Italy until the previous evening! Fortunately, she was happy about going there and ... read more

Hello This will be a short blog tonight. We are just doing some R&R in this apartment over he next few days. We did do a little walking today. The road is quite steep and full of hairpin curves. Had to be on guard but did take a few pictures. The weather has been very kind to us. God bless LOWELL... read more

The fine weather is holding for us and even if the mountains in the far distance have disappeared from our view because of either a greater haze or lower cloud than yesterday it looks like it should remain dry for Gretchen’s sightseeing tour of the day. Surprisingly our tired muscles from yesterdays walk in the forest have recovered remarkably well which perhaps does prove that our fitness is not too bad at all. Gretchen has promised no long walks today so the muscles won’t be tested for two days in a row. Our view of the lake is expansive and we have looked at various spots within our visibility range and wondered what was actually there. And it was one of these spots that Gretchen has got in mind as our main destination. Because the lake ... read more

We had a feeling that the position of the apartment at Lake Maggiore would give us a special sunrise and we were right. While the sun rising out of the sea, as we have seen at Mt Maunganui back home, is a special occasion, so too was the sun rising over the mountains here at the lake. First the light in the eastern sky slowly went through various shades of pink and with the help of some cloud it meant that colour spread across most of our view. Then we caught the first rays appear and very quickly the sun itself. It was surprising just how quick it rose above the horizon and we put that down to the mountains giving an uneven skyline whereas when we have seen the sun rise from the open sea ... read more