Isola Bella

A small boat picked us up at the hotel, and took us to Isola Bella, the Beautiful Island. We toured the Borromeo Palace. Prince Charles and Lady Di had lunch here on their honeymoon. The Borromeo family still uses this palace, but only in the summer. There is no heat for the winter, and the fireplaces are mostly decorative. The ballroom was beautiful. Light blue walls and white ceilings. Looking up, you can see the doors that lead to the sleeping quarters of the royal family. There is a heavily mosaiced grotto. It is very different than anything I have seen before. I bet this is a wonderful place to come stand on a hot summer’s day.

The grounds around the palace had the prettiest gardens. The garden is laid out over ten terraces that descend gradually, and it is adorned with basins, fountains, architectural perspectives, and a multitude of statues dating from the second half of the seventeenth century, which represent the personification of rivers, seasons and winds.

There were white peacocks, which I understand are very rare, living here. I think one of them was actually posing for Dave as he took snap shots of it. They must be used to the continual traffic of tourists.

While we were there, we had time to stop and smell the roses

We had enough time to walk around in the village on the island, but found prices to be high, so we didn’t buy anything. The vendors were not willing to haggle here either. When we offered a price, the lady referred to the price tag.