Isola Madre, garden and palazzo

8/5 Stresa / Isola Madre
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isola_Madre Our second museum ticket was for the Palazzo Borromeo which, on the outside, looked a bit like so many old Italian buildings – dull yellow paint and a bit tired. Then you go inside and it’s more bling and gold and sometimes quite strange displays. But first came the gardens.

This is the biggest of the three islands and at 220 x 330m it’s easy to get around though maybe a few more slopes and stairs than the other two. Like Isola Bella it has terraces and one of these has citrus trees lining the edge, it must be heaven when they’re flowering. There’s a big palm garden and all sorts of other exotic trees and plants, all beautifully kept, manicured hedges, swept paths. The azaleas were getting a bit past their best and the rhododendrons just coming out but there were other colours too. Every now and then you’d see a quick movement from the corner of your eye and it would be a gecko speeding past, then (as they do) stop until you could see it, then speed on again.

Pete was a bit cross with me because I walked on the grass to take a photo of a beautiful orange bird, no idea what it was but it was gorgeous. There were lots of brown birds, maybe some kind of pheasant? And poor dull peahens with a few babies competing for attention – no contest when the master peacock is on the lawn strutting around, as well as two stunning white peacocks. One was on the lawn with his tail spread out like a bridal train, and the other was on the roof of the aviary, tail spread out behind him. Not so keen on the aviary though, the line-up of budgies looked pretty depressing as did the other birds.

The wisteria was out on the very pretty ‘staircase of the dead’ and iris just coming out in a little pond by the café/shop. Walking past the old stone boat shed there was a very nice motorboat sitting inside, with a very old big boat strung up above, sort of like a big gondola, which I expect the lackeys rowed the Borromeos across to the mainland.

Right by the house there’s a huge Kashmir cypress tree 160 years old which we found out had been uprooted in a storm in 2006 but the Borromeo family paid a fortune to have it sat up using ropes and a helicopter, roots carefully replanted, incredible care over the years and it’s still going strong though secured tightly by cables so it won’t happen again.

The house (palazzo) is another museum to the Borromeo family, aristocrats through the ages, several popes (including the pope on the throne at the time of the Reformation, Pete tells me!), so many portraits and paintings, too much to describe. The rooms are beautiful, especially one with very delicate painted walls, very soft colours, big glass doors on two sides and, unfortunately, a fairly ugly Murano glass chandelier which really ‘shouted’ at the rest of the room. The notices in each room said a little about the displays, mainly that the china, furniture, ornaments etc were from the family collections and gave centuries-old dates. Models in some rooms had original period dress for servants, very smart too. There were some displays of puppets, similar to those on Isola Bella, and apparently the theatres still work with sound effects and scenery changes so they’ve had good care over the years. Some of the models were a bit odd – at first glance I thought the pirate looked a bit like Mick Jagger.

Out of the house we went down the stairs to the pretty pond which had irises just coming out and quite a few goldfish swimming around. Didn't stop other than to peep into the small chapel which was very simply decorated, quite a contrast to the rest of the house. We walked back to the boat station having thoroughly enjoyed this island, very easy to spend more time there.

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