Isola Bella Travel Guide

 knyaz Says:  Actually Isola Bella is at Piedmont, not Lombarty as VT says. It is located on Lake Maggiore...You must see a Castle on the island. Tour is very nice, it is given by the family who has been serving this island for many generations. The servant is very funny, and once the... 

 Manara Says:  About the statuary in the gardens, Vitaliano's intention was to order statues that would celebrate the family's ancestors and their achievements. So much for the family's motto "Humilitas"! However, his brother convinced him to change his mind and to decorate the garden with... 

 Manara Says:  The statues that decorated gardens in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance were never meant just as ornaments. They always had symbolic meanings. Here in the Teatro Massimo, for instance, the unicorn at the top is a symbol of purity, and at its sides there are statues... 

 Manara Says:  We must also remember that gardens like these were the background for courteous life, for sets of people who had learned from young age to dance, to walk gracefully, to speak softly, and also the plants and flowers of their gardens were taught good manners. 

 Manara Says:  The Isola Madre has more exotic birds than Isola Bella, but on both islands you will find the impossibly beautiful white peacocks. Their colours make them stand out, whatever the colour of the background. Their tails look so much like the lace of a bride's gown that one... 

 Manara Says:  Our idea of a garden or a park is likely to consist of a green lawn, shady trees, maybe the bend of a stream. We forget that our tastes have been modelled by 250 years or so of English gardens, a concept that Kenneth Clark described as "the most pervasive influence that... 

 Manara Says:  Other statues represent Earth, Water, Air and Fire, the four elements that formed the world according to Greek philosopy. In Christianity they became symbols of the four ways of reading the Scriptures: earth symbolized the literal meaning, water the moral meaning, air the... 

 Manara Says:  Charles's son, Vitaliano, was handed the property in 1672, and much of the look this island has now is due to the work done by him. For this reason many guidebooks give him all the credit for Isola Bella and forget that the whole idea was started by his father. 

 Manara Says:  In 1632, when his brother Julius Caesar III took possession of the family's residence in the Isola Madre, Count Charles III Borromeo bought the Isola di Sotto, renamed it Isola Bella and planned to build there a mansion that would surpass his brother's.This sheds some light... 

 Liolio Says:  I am not fond of different museums and things like that, but I think that it is really worth to visit Borromeo palace in Isola Bella. Borromeo was a chef patron of the lake, he built the palace to his wife as a present. The inside is very beautiful, you can indulge into the... 

 Liolio Says:  Take a stroll not only in the famous Borromean palace and sooo beautiful gardens, but also in the little streets of Isola Bella. This will not take long time from you as Isola is not so big. These little streets appeared hidden local treasures to me! There are also some... 

 Liolio Says:  It would be a good idea to spend at least half an hour in the streets of Isola Bella, you can never know what you find just around the corner in this small isle - small shops, cosy restaurants, stone wall or just an interesting local balcony... Explore it :) 

 rozehill Says:

 rozehill Says:  To see this show close up of the little peacock is gorgeous 

 rozehill Says: