Among the Borromeo family's wonders: Isola Bella

The history of the dynasty Borromeo winds its way from the end of the 14th century onwards through a fascinating journey where politics, diplomacy, matrimonial alliances, military exploits, shrewd wealth management and passion for art, collecting, science and botany intersect and overlap.
Visit the Borromeo Islands and the Fortress of Angera means still today retracing the vicissitudes of one of Italy's most illustrious families through the places that illustrious ancestors built, inhabited and that are still carefully preserved today.
L'Isola Bella is an astonishing place with recurring blossoms and priceless art treasures that blend into a harmonious microcosm. Transformed from a rock to a flower garden today, the island looks like a vessel floating on the azure waters of Lake Maggiore, as was the intention of its founder Vitaliano VI Borromeo. Visiting this place will allow you to immerse yourself for a day in a bygone era where Baroque taste blends virtuously with the green architecture of the garden, creating a marriage that has no equal.
The garden on Isola Bella is a paradise where statues and architectural decorations alternate with geometrical and botanical treasures. Trusted gardeners prune, fertilise, experiment, preserving this enchanting place from the passing of time. At the gates of the garden, a large camphor tree has been welcoming visitors for almost two hundred years. Once they have passed through the large gate, they find before them the splendour of the Amphitheatre that scenographically occupies the central part of the island. The Baroque-style Italian garden is laid out on parterres and terraces placed at different heights and alternates statues, obelisks, stone steps and balustrades that create a scenographic layout designed to symbolise the power of the noble family.
Visitors can still walk along the garden paths to the top of the largest terrace, the island's true command bridge from which to admire the expanse of the lake and the enchantment of this man-made garden.
The palazzo on Isola Bella is a treasure trove of Baroque art suspended over the water. You will pass elegantly furnished salons with splendid views of the lake, around you canvases by well-known artists, fine furniture, marble, neoclassical stucco, antique sculptures, gold and silk Flemish armour and tapestries.