Lake Maggiore, Italy with Albert

My brother, Albert, was in Milan for work a couple weeks ago. So we headed up there Friday evening to spend Sat, Aug 1st with him.

We saw this on our way on the highway. Looks nice and safe, yes?

We decided to spend the day at Lake Maggiore, which is one of the prealpine lakes in northern Italy, just NW of Milan. Albert was staying at a hotel on the lake, so we picked him up Saturday morning and toured around for the day.

The first thing we did was a little hiking on the west side of the lake.

heading up the trail...

Taking a break. The boys got tired quickly and so we didn't hike long. We were hoping to get up high enough for a good view of the lake. The best view ended up being at the start of the trail.

View from the trailhead.

Next, the boys did a little swimming at the lake and we ate lunch that I had packed. I'm sure Albert was impressed with our PBJ's. We usually eat in the hotel for breakfast, try to pack a lunch and then eat a nice dinner. It just works better that way, and saves time and money. I didn't take any pictures of our little picnic or the boys swimming, but they had fun!

We decided to take a boat out to two of the islands on the lake, Isola dei Pescatori or Isola Superiore and Isola Bella. Albert had been to Isola Superiore for dinner during the week, but we decided to do them both so we could check it out, too.

Taking the boat out to Isola Superiore.

Isola Superiore.

the church

Taking a break in a cool alley, having some gelatos!

Isola Bella!

View from Isola Bella. And my brother Albert :)

You can see Isola Superiore in the background.

Isola Bella is entirely occupied by the Palazzo Borromeo and it's gardens. Palazzo Borromeo is a palace built by the Borromeo family, which still owns several of the islands on Lake Maggiore.

A grand room in the Palazzo Barromeo.

There were several rooms with shells and rocks interlayed to form the walls and ceilings. That's some serious labor.

View of Isola Superiore from the palace.

These cantileved steps were awesome. Kevin and Albert had to walk against the walls to feel safe... (engineers!)

In the gardens...

You can climb up and around this monument...

and look down on the rest of the gardens and across the lake.

After our boat ride, the guys still wanted to drive up to the hills to get a view of the lake.

This was a neat vantage point of the two islands.

There was also this huge statue, I tried to take pictures of the description, but they were a little too reflective...

It was closed so we didn't get a chance to walk up inside it.

We did find a really nice place to eat just down the road, and it also had a nice view of the lake.

View from our restaurant.

Then we headed back to Arona...

hung out by the lake...

and had a few more gelatos!

We had fun hanging out with my brother - so glad we could catch up with him in Italy! Thanks for spending the day with us, Albert, the boys had fun and enjoyed seeing their Uncle!