Donkey stew

Me on the water facing Isola Bella on Lago Maggiore in Stresa

Our room in Stresa. Nice laquered bowls

The gateway to our B&B. Over the mailbox is a typed in 8 pt font faded label. Hard to see in the rain and dark

Room we used the computer in in Stresa

Signora Dallina

African art room of Signora Dallina

Our bedroom

They eat Horses, Don't they? Chopped up horse meat for babies in a Stresa market.
Two interesting wines: Blood of Judah and Butta.....

The Grand Hotel des Iles Borromees. This hotel was in "Farewell to Arms" Oh, Catherine died in Stresa for you Hemmingway fans

Fancy gate

Impatiens on steroids. Gardens were so lush,Stresa must have a lot of rain

Isola Bella gardens in Lago Maggiore near the town of Stresa

Gardens

Outside of palace. The inside was much more impressive but they wouldn't let us take pictures

Inside shot of palace I found on web

Really elaborate mosiacs in the stables that I found on the web

More gardens

Mosiac in garden

Water lilies in Bella Isola. These were intense purple but didn't photograph that way

Statuary on Bella Isola

More Statues

Teri and the peacock. These were running all over the place

Mountains around Lago Maggiore and Isola Bella from where we caught the ferry

Unicorn on top of the statuary

The enoteca where you can get your donkey stew. I had osso buco con risotto milanese instead

Recently on an Anthony Bourdain show on Sardinia, he was eating roast donkey saying Sardinia is the only place in the world that eats donkey. Not so. At the enoteca we ate at last night in Stresa featuring regional cuisine, stracotto d'asino i.e. donkey stew was on the menu. They start their equine eating ways early here. In the grocery store, we found cavallo baby food i.e.HORSE. I will upload the picture to prove it.
Travel is to expand ones world and I try to try new things but somethings...

Stresa on Lago Maggiore is beautiful. High mountains, beautiful public gardens, islands, lake, fancy turn of the century buildings. I am very glad we came. Pictures to come at some point. We arrived in the rain with only a crude map showing approximately where Stresa B e B might be-no address (very bad name-asking someone where it was was like a bad who's on first parody-what b&b, Stresa b e b, no I mean what b&b?) We went up hills dragging our luggage for about an hour when I finally saw some faded sign in the dark. But inside, the place was incredibly beautiful with high end furniture and eclectic art. Our room features stylized multi colored nude women paintings on the wall and we had the 'matrimonial suite' though that is what they call double beds. The proprietress was very nice and showed us her fancy private quarters. We have a shower with 9 shower heads though not enough pressure to use them all at once. And extra bonus, it has a view of the lake, near the main square and not expensive. We are having many lost in translation moments. Early Signora D suggested we go to the Torino Restaurant and later asked us if we were going to Torino. No to Cinque Terre, Lucca, etc...

Today we took a ferry to Isola Bella which has a 300 year old very ornate palace on it with elaborate formal gardens. Just unbelievable. White peacocks roamed freely. Lots of flowers. I was afraid coming so late meant no flowers but fortunately that is not the case.
Our route is still unplanned. We are close to the Swiss Border and I always wanted to see Bern. It's 3 hours away so maybe. We have reservations in Lucca at an agriturismo but no other plans. People are so friendly here and gave us a lot of help as our late plane made us miss the bus to here. So we had to take a bus to another town and catch a train. One of the stops was Meina. I had seen Hotel Meina, a very sad story about the Jewish experience during WW2 in Italy. The hotel guests of Hotel Meina ended up on the bottom of Lake Maggiore.