Twenty years ago, I picked up a book by Penelope Hobhouse and read about a fantastic garden called Isola Bella on Lake Maggiore.
I remember looking at the beautiful pictures of this garden, and saying to Loraine, “Wow, how I would love one day to stand there.”
Who knew that just a few years later, my dream would come true and I would indeed stand on the beautiful island off the shore from Stresa.
It lived up to my expectations. We walked the garden top to bottom, left to right, up and down. And left with regret that we didn’t have more time to see more.
A few years later, we returned with a group of people. Unfortunately, our itinerary was very poor and it didn’t allow us to spend much on the island, although we were able to also visit Isola Madre, the sister island, which was incredibly beautiful.
This time, we got to have more time for both gardens. I was very excited when we came down from Brissago and stopped in Baveno, a short distance from Stresa, to check into Hotel Splendid, which certainly lived up to its name with superb rooms and magnificent views of the lake.
The next morning, we headed first thing to Garden Botanic di Villa Taranto.
This was build by Scotsman (although I see he was actually born in England), Captain Neil Boyd Watson McEacharn, who transformed the lakeshore site from 1930 to the time of his death in 1964 into a fabulous garden.
It seems like the Scottish force ran deep with this one because the garden in many places feels just like a classic Scottish hill garden.
Today, the 16-hectare Taranto garden still contains many of the trees and shrubs and areas that were planted under the McEacharn reign, including a lovely rhododendron woodland and Terraced Gardens.
It is estimated the garden today has nearly 20,000 plant varieties covering more than 3,000 species with seven kilometres of paths.
Once inside the garden, we followed the suggested route on the official map that suggested 12 key sites, starting with a formal lawn and border with an impressive fountain feature.
We slowly moved up the hillside to the terraces at the top where there are more formal flower displays as well as a lovely pond area bordered by beds filled with snapdragons.
At some points, the garden feels very much like a Cornish ravine garden. The slopes are steep and densely planted with rhododendrons and azaleas and other trees and shrubs.
We found the whole experience of the garden very restful and enjoyable and emerged two hours later at the entrance where there is a very inviting coffee shop.
From Villa Taranto, we moved to Stresa and after lunch took a short boat ride to Isola Bella.
However, we quickly discovered things have changed.
In the past, you could walk directly into the garden. Today, you have to walk though the house and all that it has to offer before you can get into the garden.
Frankly, it’s a drag. I don’t want to see endless rooms filled with boring portraits and tapestry.
Some of the rooms are very impressive, but really I came to see the garden. Let me go, let me in, and don’t keep forcing me into the gift shop and the grotto – to see things I don’t want to see.
The garden was again very impressive, but this time, it being spring, I was able to see rhododendrons and azaleas in full bloom plus all sorts of early spring flowering shrubs, such as lilac and camellia and pittosporum, lovely boxwood walls in terracotta pots still line the staircases and there are lots of pots stuffed with grasses.
The embroidery parterre on the lower terrace again looked fabulous and we found some massive lemons hanging from trees.
I love this garden and would be happy to spend an entire day on the island. I wish I could have come at 8 in the morning and stayed to 8 at night. It is that wonderful to my mind.
But we moved over to Isola Madre and were instantly impressed by the calm, quiet, serenity of the place. It is quite different to its sister island; a little more refined and a lot emptier and less touristy.
We loved our time walking around the lower terraces and then up to the villas where the gigantic Kashmir cypress occupied the courtyard.
This tree toppled in 2006 and now needs to be held in placed by heavy duty cables. But it is an impressive site and very impressive that people would actually take the time and trouble to save such a tree.
After a lovely time walking this garden with all its exotic plantings and very pleasant bird inhabitants – white peacocks and hugely colourful Egyptian pheasants – we were able to get our boat to take us directly back to our hotel.
On the way, we had a fun singsong, lead by our inimitable guide, Max. Great fun.
Tomorrow we head back to Milan as we make our way to Sardinia. But in Milan, we will look around the Duomo and visit La Scala for a more intimate education of the world’s most famous opera house.
swhysall@hotmail.com
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