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Published: September 6th 2012
Baveno
The ticket office It is hard to believe that a week has gone by since we left England. Where has that week gone? I know where I would rather be - italy in the rain or England - Italy wins hands down.
Woke up to heavy rain this morning pounding on the roof of the van. I worked on the basis that it started before 7am and would be gone by 11am. First job was a shower and it was much enjoyed despite the showers being full of people. I wonder what the site would be like in the middle of the season when all the visitors were here . Over breakfast we watched one of our neighbours taking Pig his Peugeot scooter off the back of his van. Felt rather envious of his freedom with the scooter. We were limited to where we could get by walking, by bus, train or by ferry. We call every scooter Pig after reading a blog by Hank the Tank where he calls his scooter Pig and his rubber boat Yellow Belly. We wish we had not sold our bike but with hindsight it was probably too big an engine and to heavy to carry round
on the back of Suzy.
Our plan for the day was to visit Isola Bella - the beautiful island - in the footsteps of Monty Don the English gardener who presents Gardeners World on BBC. He produced a programme a few years ago on Italian gardens and he had extolled the virtues of Isola Bella as a wonderful example of Northern Italian gardens and gardening. One of the other programmes included the gardens of the Popes in and around Rome which were designed to impress and the two others the southern Italian warm gardens and the remaining gardens in the English style. One of which even included an English Capability Brown inspired landscape. It was a fabulous programme if you are seriously into gardening and we loved it so much that we have tried to follow his path and see the gardens he mentioned in the programme.
The ferry ran every 40 minutes from Baveno to the island and it was fairly empty as it was back end of the season. The trip takes under 10 mins and the scenery from the ferry stunning. The camera clicked all the way. The ferry ticket offices were very much Art
Deco with coloured glass and ironwork. We were sold our ticket by a nautically dressed lady and the cost was just over 26 euros for an all day circulatory ticket
We rather liked Baveno even though it wasnt the life and soul of the party. it just suited us.
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