Stresa - Lake Maggiore & Lake Orta Travel Guide

Stresa, the Roman Strixia, with its 5,000 inhabitants today, became one of the best-known spa and health resorts in Europe in the late 18th century.

First Napoleon's opening of the Simplon road, later the building of the railway linking it via Domodossola with Western and Central Europe and, to the south, with Milan, Turin and Genoa, and today the direct motorway connection to Milan and Turin have kept the stream of visitors flowing.

Its position on the southern shore of the Borromean Gulf, with a dreamlike view across the gulf and its islands to the opposite shore and as far as Monte Tamaro in the north, and its attractive hinterland around Mottarone, made Stresa an early favourite meeting place for artists and poets, the moneyed aristocracy, and also for crowned heads and politicians.

Stendhal (1783-1842), Charles Dickens (1812-1870), Lord Byron (1788-1824) and others made Stresa world-famous, and Ernest Hemingway set several chapters of his novel "A Farewell to Arms" here.

The great luxurious Art Nouveau hotels were built at the end of the 19th century and still radiate the charm of the Belle Époque today.

This applies especially to the Grand Hôtel des Iles Borromées, built in 1862 in the Second Empire style, where the Stresa Conference took place in 1935. There the heads of government of France, Great Britain and Italy agreed measures to counter the suspected German policy of expansion and war, though these did not last.

The well-kept lakeside promenade against the backdrop of the grand hotels is always worth a visit. The beautifully laid-out parks of most of the villas are privately owned and generally not open to the public.

The Italian-style park of the Villa Ducale, however, with a truly monumental cedar of Lebanon dating from 1860, can be visited free of charge. The palace-like building, constructed in 1770 for a wealthy Milanese tobacco merchant, now houses the Collegio Rosmini. Here you can see the living and working quarters of the philosopher and churchman Antonio Rosmini (1797-1855) and a collection of documents on his life and work.


A little outside Stresa, in the direction of Arona, lies the Villa Pallavicino, whose magnificent English-style park covers 160,000 m2. A zoo has been set up in the park, a rewarding destination especially for families with children. The park is open from mid-March to the end of October, 9am-6pm.

The picture below shows the view from Stresa towards Isola Bella in February 2013.


Stresa's hinterland is worth visiting in every season. In summer it is an extensive walking area with many waymarked trails, and in winter the area around Mottarone (1,491 m) is a popular ski area.

Mottarone offers a magnificent view over the whole Lake Maggiore region and Lake Orta, as far as the glacier-covered Alpine peaks of the Valais and Ticino. It can be reached from Stresa or Baveno by a well-built road, with a toll on the upper section. In just a few minutes you travel from the Mediterranean lake landscape into the subalpine zone.

On the drive up to Mottarone, the Umbrella Museum in Gignese (707 m) awaits visitors with sun and rain umbrellas of every kind and the tools used to make them, for umbrella-making was for a long time the economic mainstay of the surrounding villages. A few kilometres further on, in the villa settlement of Alpino, the Giardino Alpino (807 m) welcomes visitors with hundreds of alpine plants and fantastic views of Lake Maggiore.

Stresa is a lovely place for a holiday on Lake Maggiore.

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