Up and out at the usual time.
Walk across the street to the pier and onto the boat to take us into lake Maggiore and to the first of our Borromean Islands; Isola Bella (Beautiful Island).

In 1632 Carlo III began construction of a palazzo dedicated to his wife Isabella. The associated gardens were not completed until 1671.
The palazzo played host to Napoleon and his wife Josephine as well as Caroline, the Princess of Wales.
In 1935 a high level conference was convened here where British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, French Prime Minister Pierre Flandin, and Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini cemented an alliance to counter Adolph Hitler. Obviously this effort failed.

After touring the palace and gardens it was time to boat over to Isola dei Pescatori for lunch.

Lunch was a fairly quick affair (though good – fresh fish) and we were quickly off to the last island Isola Madre.

Isola Madre is the largest of the islands and is home to the older (16th century)

Isola Madre is the largest of the islands and is home to the older (16th century) palace as well as an extensive garden.
We started with a tour of the palace. It was your basic palace…except for the marionettes. This was a really big deal for whomever was living there. We saw hundreds of puppets along with costumes and sets. I have included just a couple of samples.

Eventually it was time to head back to the boat, and the hotel for a brief respite before the next event.

6:00 saw us boarding a van with 8 other fun-goers for a trip to a ‘home-hosted dinner’.
This tradition gives us a chance to interact with a local, learn about their life and culture and sample their food.
Andrea and his dogs (and his aunt) were happy to welcome us into his back yard where he had prepared an excellent meal.
While he and I were attending to the pizza appetizer in his outdoor kitchen his aunt was serving cheese and salami. We brought back the first of 3 pizzas and dug in. Along the way he produced the next two pizzas and a pan of potatoes and onions that also cooked in his pizza oven.
The main course was what he called Ragu – small pocket noodles stuffed with ground sausage served along with more ground sausage. It was Excellent!
Dessert was home-made ice cream flavored with figs from his tree – I assume it was quite good. I opted for the ‘soaked in bourbon’ version so any flavor had a task to fight thru that. This was followed by an offering of grapa, bourbon, or some other local libation. And coffee.
Along the way we learned much about Andrea and his life and dreams (wants to move to Montana). He is an avid hunter. He even brought out some pheasant feathers and a frozen woodcock to highlight stories. His aunt spoke very little English – just enough to regale us with the tale of his call for HELP when this dinner was scheduled during a time when his wife and mother were visiting her mother in Sicily.
All told it was a very good meal and a great time.

I almost forgot about the dogs.
They are large (large enough to rest their chins on the table) and VERY friendly.
They were especially taken with the guest seated at the end of the table (and his wife sitting on his left). They are both dog owners and appear to be missing their own dogs. So they (he particularly) spent the meal talking to the one dog (Grant – named after the general), explaining that he wasn’t going to give Grant any scraps. Grant, of course took this as an invitation to constantly beg for food.
Meanwhile the other dog (whose name we can’t remember) lay peacefully under the table keeping Cheryl’s feet warm.

So that’s Tuesday.
Tomorrow we tour Lake Orta, visit a sacred mountain and a monastery on an island.

Till then,
R