Day 21 - Thu 18 Sep 25: Stresa

September 18, 2025

Thu 18 Sep 25: Stresa

Our room is very nice, modern and comfortable, and hotel staff are very attentive, but it’s a shame that we had such a sleepless night with Noeleene’s coughing, and our inability to work out the air conditioner control to cool the room down (turns out is controlled at reception). Anyway, we survived the night, had a wonderful breakfast, and departed at 0745 by bus for Mennagio on Lake Como. It was a cloudy morning, but it was a beautiful drive from Stresa along Lake Maggiore and into the pre-alps. Making our way though the small villages along Lake Como was glorious, but the streets were very narrow, and oncoming traffic around tight bends caused some anxious moments. Full credit to the skill of our bus driver who often had only often with only mms to spare. Arrived on Mennagio, we boarded a boat for a tour of part of Lake Como which was very enjoyable, then we were dropped us off on the other side of the lake at Bellagio for about 2.5 hours (which i think was about 2 hours too long). Its such a small hilly coastal village, where lots of rich people come to flaunt their wealth, and then 100's of boatloads of people are dropped off to admire the place. Others enjoyed it, but it didn't do anything for me. Back on the boat at 1:20pm, we were transferred back across the lake to Mennagio for a 45 minute visit to Villa Carlotta. Villa Carlotta is a villa and botanical garden in Tremezzo, also on Lake Como. Today the villa is a museum, with a collection of works by sculptors such as Canova, Thorvaldsen and Migliara; and painters such as Francesco Hayez. The gardens looked nice, but apparently spring is the time to be here. At 2:30, we started our return trip to Stresa on the bus, traveling along Lake Lugano then Lugano city in Switzerland before crossing back into Italy at Chiasso. We arrived back at the hotel at about 5:15 for a bit of down time before meeting everyone for a group dinner in the backstreets of Stresa at 7:30pm, much later than we would prefer. It was a nice low key Italian Restaurant with good honest Italian hospitality, and LOTS of food (read Too Much), was served. Just when you thought it was over, out came another dish, very simple, but very tasty. They like to eat late here which is taking a lot of getting used to, but hey - when in Rome (or Stresa)....We eventually made it back to our room from dinner at 10.20pm.