Fairy Tale Town-Stresa, Italy

Cashier at Autotrasse Grill

Stresa

Isola Belle 

Oct. 13, 2015-Stresa

Fairy Tale Town-Stresa, Italy

I've always said that travel is better in retrospect. For some of you who can identify, it's like childbirth. Once it's over, you're glad you did it. We tend to attack travel, not luxuriate in it. We get lost, plans go awry, devices don't always work, language is a trial, we can't operate familiar machines like washers, driving patterns and roads are white-knuckle-makers, and on and on. It's stressful. We discussed whether we'd do another independent driving trip. This may be our last. The only places we'd drive are in Europe and we've pretty much done that. It looks like we have Romania and Bulgaria to go and we'll do organized tours there.

Today's drive was uneventful, which is a good thing. The roads were winding along the coast as we headed towards Savona before turning North to Stresa. It was raining, we were driving through clouds or fog (take your choice), and the trucks were so wide they filled an entire lane. There was no way they could take a curve without encroaching on us. But, unlike their reputation, not all Italians are crazy drivers. Not even most.

We found our second choice of hotels first. It's called The Meeting.  They were booked for the two days we wanted but had an apartment down the block in the "villa." It was nominally more and included breakfast at the hotel and had a parking lot. I looked at it as David circled the block. It's larger than the apartment we had in Australia. 

We wanted to stroll the streets between raindrops and needed to get a few items at a pharmacy and grocery. The pharmacist was most helpful and her English was good even though we paid $10 for twenty-four ibuprofin.  The grocery didn't have the quart bags we needed. Both our bags broke. I have other size bags, but no quarts. On the way back to the hotel we stopped at the pharmacy to ask where to buy the bags.  The woman gladly gave us two quart bags she wasn't using.

We did get down to the lake and took photos of Isola Bella where we'd been years ago. Stresa is a most charming place. The old part is lovingly cared for and has a fairy tale quality. Flowers are still in bloom and each property has a riot of colors showing off the owner's pride.

There was still time for laundry and a laundromat nearby. We met a man from New Jersey and we chatted while we waited. As he left he told us he and his wife were staying at a lovely apartment at a place called The Meeting. We're neighbors. Small world. Smaller world. They were at the hotel restaurant for dinner and we joined them. Lovely time exchanging travel anecdotes. It's a second marriage, he's Jewish, she's not. They live on a boat in Florida. Who knows? Maybe our paths will cross again.

Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny here. Maybe we'll cruise Lago Maggiore and take in islands we haven't seem.

Toby