One of the major tourist attractions of the entire region are the "Borromean Islands" are three small islands and two islets in the Italian part of Lake Maggiore. They are located on the western arm of the lake, between Verbania to the north and Stresa to the south.

The Borromeo family started "accumulating" them in the early sixteenth century (Isola Madre) and still owns some of them (Isola Madre, Bella, San Giovanni) today. This latter island started life a s a rock with little or no life or vegetation. The Island was built upon by count Carlo III between 1629 and 1652, his son Vitaliano the 6th also built a summer palace. To achieve the verdant foliage and gardens he brought in vast quantities of soil, no mean feat without mechanisation.

Isola Madre is the largest of the four islands who is also known for its gardens, which were established on a typical English stately home gardens in the mid 1880's. The palace is a masterpiece of culture and furnished with XVI to XIX century Italian works of art and antiques.

Two small islets complete the group. Isolino di San Giovanni is just off Pallanza (now part of Verbania) to the north. Finally there is the tiny uninhabited rock of Malghera which lies between Isola Bella and Isola dei Pescatori and offers only scant vegetation.

Isola dei Pescatori or Isola Superiore is the only island with a permanent population (albeit it very small). It has a fishing village and is well worth a visit if you want to go back in time!

Here is an extract you may find interesting. You may also not wish to swim in the Lake. It is an extract from the Fortean Times, which was written by Ulrich Magin:

"Although Italy’s second largest lake, with its palm trees and neo-classical villas, hardly looks like the kind of remote spot one would expect to find surviving plesiosaurs, the lake monster of Lago Maggiore is well known in cryptozoological circles, mainly through a reference in Peter Costello’s classic book In Search of Lake Monsters: "[I]n the Italian Alps Lake Maggiore is the reputed haunt of a monster. In 1934, fishermen reported they had seen it where the River Ticino runs into the lake. It was not however dreamed up just to cash in on the fashion for monsters, because this particular monster – said to have a horse’s head and to live on fish – was mentioned at the beginning of the 19th century in one of his travel books by the novelist Stendhal." The quote by Stendhal – who wrote extensively on Lake Maggiore – has not yet been traced and probably does not exist. As for the lake being the creature’s "reputed haunt", my own experience indicates that people around the lake are not aware of any monster, and that it is mainly tourists who see and report it. Also, strange as it seems, no Italian or Swiss source (the point where the Ticino joins the lake is actually in Switzerland) for the incident mentioned by Costello has yet been found."