Lago Maggiore and Treno Gottardo
Stresa
After a relaxing nine-hour journey from toe, or rather heel, to top of Italy, I just missed my connection to Stresa in Milan and decided to splurge on a first class ticket on a later train for the short hop to the lakeside town.
I would still get there in time for dinner, so everything was still nicely on track. I’d also have room to spread out after the crowded Lecce to Milan train. The first class compartment had excellent air con too, though temperatures were only in the mid-30s when we travelled. A week or so later they were to hit the 40s.
Meg had arrived a few hours before me and had scoped out a really nice restaurant, Lo Stornello. We’d left it too late to get an outside table, but that proved to be just as well because there was a biblical thunderstorm half way through the meal and the outdoor diners looked a little damp. We felt very smug sitting inside.
Our respective hotels were a bit old fashioned and basic but the town was lovely – lots of alfresco drinking and dining in pretty piazzas.
The town was full of holidaymakers, but not excessively so. Most of the tourists seemed to be European with a sprinkling of other nationalities.
The following morning, we wandered around aimlessly for a bit and found out that on a Wednesday, the only option for a ferry travelling right through to Locarno at the other end of Lake Maggiore was 4 pm. So we bought our tickets for the 3.5 hour lake cruise from the official lake shipping company Navigazione Laghi for the princely sum of €18.50. After a bit of wheedling, the ticket office also stored our bags for the day, but it was far from an official arrangement. Luckily they were still there when we got back.
That gave us nearly the whole day to kill. Our Locarno tickets were actually good to go anywhere on the lake for the whole day, but we decided not to spend hours trying to decipher the official ferry timetable and got a three-island ticket from one of the private ferry companies touting for business on the lakeside. That was €16.50.
This was the point we realised a little advance planning would have come in handy, because the three islands located a short hop from Stresa – Isola Madre, Isola dei Pescatori and Isola Bella – were uniformly fantastic and we didn’t have nearly enough time to do them justice.
Isola Madre
From the lake shore and ferry, Isola Madre looks like a magical floating island from a fairy story, with its leafy botanical garden sitting atop it in cake-like tiers.
We bought a combined ticket for Isola Madre and Isola Bella for €30. This grants you access to the beautiful gardens and palazzos built by the Borromeo family on both islands.
We quickly realised that the hour we’d allotted ourselves definitely wouldn’t be enough to see all the delights that Isola Madre had to offer. We had to tear round the gorgeously-tended lush botanical gardens with their peacocks and snowy peahens, when it would have been lovely to linger all day. The island also boasts a posh-looking restaurant, with panoramic terrace that looked very tempting.
We’d nearly circumnavigated the island, when we stumbled across the palazzo. Sometimes it’s worth not knowing what to expect, as the surprise is all the greater.
The sixteenth-century palazzo is stuffed with a variety of interesting items brought from the other Borromeo residences including lots of dolls and puppet theatres. For the Borromeo family and their friends, it must have been like inhabiting an earthly paradise. They had plenty of entertainment, good food, fantastic views and beautiful private gardens to wander in.
Isola Bella
We didn’t have time to get off the boat at Isola dei Pescatori (though it definitely looked worthy of a snoop around) so rode straight on to Isola Bella.
This has more in the way of buildings, bars and restaurants than Isola Madre, which proved fortunate, as we had another short, sharp thunderstorm when we arrived at the island. This meant we were able to hole up on a lovely restaurant terrace for a long lunch while we watched everyone else scurry around with their raincoats and umbrellas.
It was an almost criminally wasted visit because we didn’t get a chance to use our ticket to visit the Isola Bella gardens and palazzo. By the time we’d waited for the sun to come out, browsed the cute little market and admired the lake view, it was time to catch the ferry back to Stresa and head to Locarno.
Our over-riding feeling was that we wanted to go back and spend more time in this amazing setting. Meg is already planning a trip with her daughter.
Stresa is a tourist town and this is its raison d’être. It doesn’t pretend to be anything else. Nobody does hospitality better than the Italians.
Next time I go, I’d like to pay homage to Stresa’s tourist heyday, save up and stay at one of the Belle Epoque hotels lining the water front, such as the Grand Hotel des Iles Borromees.
Stresa-Locarno ferry
The Locarno ferry was a big boat – comfortable rather than luxurious – with plenty of inside and outside seating.
It turned out we could have stayed for longer on Isola Bella because the ferry stopped at all three islands (Madre, Bella and Pescatori) before zig-zagging its leisurely way up the lake.
The coastline, palazzos and lush gardens bordering the Italian end of the lake were all beautiful, historic and well-tended. We passed quite a few alluring little towns with waterfront restaurants, hotels and bars.
At length, the ferry crew raised the Swiss flag to show we’d crossed the border into Switzerland. All the lakeside buildings on the Swiss side from that point became more drab, geometric and modern.
Locarno
After we’d checked into our hotel near the ferry landing in Locarno, we were tired but determined to check out the Moon&Stars music festival and street food area.
At least one of us was very sad to miss the headliner Ricky Martin by one day, but we consoled ourselves with some street food snacks before collapsing for a well earned rest.
Treno Gottardo to Luzern
The following morning we woke to rain. After locating the station, we had a Swiss lakeside breakfast of superior croissant and coffee before taking our first class seats on the Treno Gottardo. I’d upgraded this leg of my second class Interrail ticket.
A regular service ran on this line until the Gotthard Tunnel opened. Then, in 2021, it was decided to reinstate the service over rather than under the Alps. The trains are new, comfortable and spacious but not billed as a panoramic, tourist service.
Instead they are a leisurely means of connecting all the little towns between Locarno and Basel. This was clear from the number of hikers and scout troops who hopped on and off along the way.
The route itself was really pleasant without the gravity-defying wow factor of the Bernina Express, with its UNESCO heritage bridges, loops, viaducts and tunnels spanning gorges before rising to a glacier at an altitude of over 2000 m.
There was still plenty of nice scenery to admire on the Treno Gottardo and even the odd height-gaining loop if you looked out for it.
The scenery really started to attract a few oohs and ahs at the end of the Locarno-Luzern leg when the train began to skirt the impossibly turquoise waters of Lake Lucerne.
Luzern
The city of Luzern was another revelation. I’ve often driven past it on the motorway when Italy-bound but never taken the trouble to visit.
It’s a jaw-dropping historical city with plenty of large, modern ships plying the lake and a beautiful river front lined with tempting restaurants and the ridiculously picturesque, covered Chapel Bridge – a flower-decked wooden bridge that spans the river at an angle.
After stuffing ourselves with solid Swiss fare, we collapsed early to our respective hotels. Mine was the imposing Waldstätterhof.
The following day, we finished off the last short leg of the Treno Gottardo from Luzern to Basel.
Were those snow-capped peaks in the distance?
In Basel, we switched to the Paris-bound high-speed TGV Lyria train.
And then it was just a short hop to Gare de Lyon in Paris and a scoot across town to Gare di Nord, the Eurostar and St Pancras International.
London, Chinatown
It was a long day – starting in Luzern and ending in Leyton – but there was still time for a few drinks in Soho with Leon and Lily and dinner in Chinatown.
