Stresa

Stresa needs 1 day: taking a boat to Isola Bella, with its baroque palace and stepped gardens with peacocks, on one, and walking the lakeside promenade with Alps views on the other. April-September is best. It's mid-to-high priced. It was the setting for part of Ernest Hemingway's novel «A Farewell to Arms», and its three Borromean Islands -Isola Bella, Isola Madre and Isola dei Pescatori-, with baroque palaces and gardens built by the Borromeo family since the 17th century, made it one of Italy's most elegant lakeside destinations since the 19th-century European aristocracy era.