On September 11, we embarked on a 10 day, Brightwater Holidays Tour to visit the Gardens of the Northern Italian Lakes. Having been to Italy a number of times, but never to the lake area, we were excited about experiencing the gardens, villas and countryside that this region offers. The trip exceeded our expectations in every way.
We spent 3 days in Como on Lago di Como in the Barchetta Excelsior hotel which was centrally located and served as our base for visiting several attractions including Villa Carlotta, Villa Balbianello, Villa d' Este and Villa Melzi all exquisite in all respects. A visit to Bellagio allowed us to experience the village and grab something light for lunch.
Four days were spent at Lake Garda at the Grand Hotel, an exceptional, lakeside hotel that personifies the word "Grand" for sure. Visits to the villa and garden at Il Vittoriale degli Italiani at the eccentric former home of Gabriele d' Annunzio, the whimsical, Andre Heller Botanical Garden and Villa Cavazzo, with its private gardens, on privately owned, Isola del Garda filled our days. A trip to a lemon house in Tignale and a visit to the quaint village of Gargnano rounded out our stay in Garda before leaving for Stresa on Lake Maggiore.
Prior to our arrival in Stresa, a stop was made in Desenzano to visit the ruins and some floor mosaics of a Roman villa. A stop at Erbusco, in the Franciacorta basin, to tour the Bellavista winery and taste their wines was included along the way. Our stay in Stresa was also lakeside at the Hotel LaPalma, a modernized, vintage hotel with a fabulous Skybar providing unobstructed views of the lake and area.
Our remaining 3 days were spent on Lake Maggiore and included visits to the botanical gardens of Villa Taranto, containing specimens collected from all over the world by the Scotsman Neil McEachem, a day trip visit to the lesser lake of Orta San Giulio included a visit to a 12th century island Basilica and a stroll up the Unesco World Heritage Site of the Sacred Mount on a hillside overlooking Lake Orta. An afternoon trip away from Lake Maggiore took us to the Villa Cicogna Mozzoni where a tour of the villa and gardens by its owner, Iacopo Cicogna Mozzoni, underscored the importance and urgency of preserving a family's beautiful, frescoed, historic home and terraced gardens with limited funds and support was evident. Visits to the Borromean Islands of Bella and Madre allowed visits to their respective gardens and villas. They were truly exquisite.
The tour, with its choice of sites to visit, the accommodations, the food, the lake and land transportation experiences was outstanding. The precision travel logistics and the depth and richness of this trip could not have been realized without our Brightwater Tour guide, Kate Williamson, whose depth of knowledge, insight, historical anecdotes and humor, were expressed with a great degree of passion and enthusiasm. This traveler has experienced many, many tour guides but none as exceptional as Kate. read more
