Stresa, Lago Maggiore

September 26-27, 2009

Stresa on Lago Maggiore (Lake Major), filled with tour company buses crowded with Germans, Americans, the French. Yet, do the French even ride in tour buses? I don’t think so either, tour buses of Germans and Americans.

Our hotel, The Grand Bristol was sitting in the shadow of the truly Grand Hotel des Iles Borromées, the setting of Hemingway’s famous, Farewell to Arms. The lake is lined with hotel after hotel, looking like colonial statements found in places like Mumbai.



Amy and I giggled at the strange and eclectic mix of artifacts which seemed to litter every inch of our hotel. Some, real, while other objects appeared to be glorified souvenirs of things such as cheesy Venetian masks.

“I am not sure if I want to leave immediately or stay forever.” Amy said, after sitting next to a giant plexi-glass protected jade ship that was either pillaged or gifted at some point in days gone by.



Tourism or not, crazy hotel or not, Stresa itself, was a typical lake town in Northern Italy. The lake suddenly emerging from the walls of giant tree filled hills, and the clouds magically taking over the empty spaces exactly at dusk.