Summary
Off early to nearby Ricetto di Candelo, a fortified refuge built in the 14th century to protect locals, crops, animals and wine during times of strife. It’s in remarkably good shape, one of best preserved in Europe. Photo ops galore. Drove north and east to Lake Maggiore. After passing through many tunnels you’re popped out to a stunning view of the lake and surrounding mountains. Took a beautiful drive up to Cannobio, reputedly the most charming town. It’s a two-lane road along the lake with no shoulder and 100s of bicyclists. It was indeed very pretty with the old town and lakeside promenade where we lunched, walked and ate gelato. Drove back south to Stresa and our hotel with balcony overlooking the lake and the Borromeo Islands. Nice serenade by a saxophone player down below.
Details
After so much walking and hill climbing yesterday I sleep in. Karen finally gets a begrudging, half-truthful “I’m up!!” from me.
There’s no way to have coffee in the room so we speed through our cleaning and packing. We do take an extra minute or two on the unique shower. Water can come out of up to five different places (wand, over head, face, boobies, nether region). That’ll wake you up!
At breakfast we can’t figure out from where the coffee comes. Ah, these insulated caraffes. One has cool Cafe Americano and the other even cooler Cafe Americano. At least they have caffeine.
Cold coffee, scrambled eggs with goodly sized pieces of egg shell, marginally edible bacon. Not our favorite breakfast to date this trip.
We pack and check out. Using our free electric charge we drive to Ricetto di Candelo. It’s not a far drive, but date-wise it’s centuries away. Back in the 13th/14th century this was a way that regular peeps can run businesses and have belongings without being under a throne or constantly getting pillaged.
It’s a co-op, a non-regal way to protect your wine, grain, etc. You don’t live here but your stuff does. Your business is here and you transact business here with your fellow dark-agers. Pillagers coming? Raise the door and start shooting arrows from the ramparts. This isn’t the only one of these in Europe but now it’s the biggest and best preserved. It’s awesome. You want to film something set back then? This is your place.
We stop for a coffee. They’re setting up for a big festival here tonight. They’re testing the sound system. Sounds like it’s going to be a rollicking good time.
Our next stop? It is a further drive than our hotel but it is listed as the prettiest city on Lake Maggiore. Sounds like it’s worth a look. Overall it’s a 90 minute drive. Our free charge gets us 1/2 way there. Not bad. Fun driving on battery only.
We can see the Alps but it’s hazy. Karen asks and AI gives all the reasons why this is so. You want crystal clear? Be here right after a big rain long rain.
Eventually we’re driving along the lake. The view is very pretty. We drive along the lake for quite a while. We find that we’re in a small town for a bit, then “out in the country” and then back through a small town again. So many roundabouts.
We get the roundabouts correctly most of the time. If I do mess up and leave a roundabout too soon or too late, either the route adjusts or (more often) at the next roundabout I’m directed to use it as a U-turn. Some times I miss my exit and realize it. In that case I just keep going around the roundabout. My exit will show up again and the GPS will snidely say “exit here”.
At our lunch stop, in Cannobio, we find parking though not easily. The lakes are a natural tourist magnet. This town is very pretty, again reportedly the prettiest on Lake Maggiore. It’s an 11 minute drive down from Switzerland. For this reason it’s hard to find a parking spot but we manage.
The walk into town is pretty with handsome buildings and lots of shops aimed at tourists. Clothes and especially cheese, sausage and limoncello. The route is mostly just pedestrians, with an occasional car thrown in for excitement.
On the waterfront itself we see the real beauty. There’s a regatta of small sailing craft on the lake which adds to the attraction. Along the water most businesses are restaurant/bars. The menus, of course, are quite similar, one to the next. We pick a place and order. Around us we hear mostly German being spoken. We ask our waiter and learn he speaks Italian, French, English, German, and Spanish. Wow. We see lots of couples and lots of families. All are here vacationing.
After our good lunch we have gelato, both of us. Whoa. Karen survives and is surprised that her blood glucose number only goes up a lot (and not ‘through the roof’).
We do a bit more walking and admiring the view and then head back to the car. On our walk we finally buy another Italian plug adapter. Most hotel rooms here have the ‘minimum one’ European style outlet. Given how many devices we have to recharge, that’s not enough and 1.90€ seems like a fair price.
Much of the drive back south is retracing our steps, but it’s pretty. Road bikes are common and tricky to pass (safely). In one city the dashboard lights up. Apparently a city can force your car to switch (if so equipped) from power mode or normal mode to Eco mode (less pollution). I was already in Eco mode but still… interesting.
In our town of Stresa we pass many amazingly big and ornate hotels. Ours is on the water, but a tad more down market. We check in. Our room’s ready (yay) and paid for. Included is breakfast and parking, nice.
Settled in we try to arrange boat tickets to the three Borromeo islands and admission to the castle/gardens. Web sites say they can but they can’t (or don’t). Walking and talking to humans we find out why. Now ticket resellers must buy all their tickets in advance (whether they can resell them or not). So now everyone has to buy their boat rides and castle entry separately. C’est la vie.
We pick a place for dinner and get there early-ish. Reservation? No. I want to say “let’s pretend that we do!” but I behave. The food and wine are very good, and the people watching is great.
On our after dinner walk we look for any possible ABI (anything but Italian) restaurants for tomorrow night but to no avail. It’s 9:30 but still plenty light. Back in our room we close the rolling blinds and get perfect darkness. Ahhh…
Photos
