Lake Maggiore's most graceful corner is an easy escape from Milan: three islands combine a theatrical palace, exotic gardens, a fishing village and long lake views.
The Borromean Islands have belonged to the aristocratic Borromeo family since the 17th century. Of the four islands, the public can visit Bella, Madre and Superiore, also known as Isola dei Pescatori. Tiny San Giovanni remains private and is off limits.
Isola Bella was once little more than a bare rock. Count Carlo Borromeo III reshaped it for his family, naming the island after his wife Isabella, the bella Isabella. The transformation began with a palace and an extravagant garden in 1632-71, conceived as the Garden of Hesperides from classical mythology, where golden apples promised immortality.
The Palazzo Borromeo was the family's holiday residence and is the finest building on Lake Maggiore. Admission is adult/child €21/12. The palace crowns an extraordinary set of terraces designed as a pyramid, an image that was meant to echo a galleon anchored in the lake. The island's small resident community was asked to move, and its resistance forced changes to the plan: the prow lost its point, but the completed complex still looks like a ship floating on the water.
Inside, richly decorated halls and guest rooms hold the Borromeo collection, including more than 130 old-master works by Rubens, Titian, Paolo Veronese, Andrea Mantegna, Van Dyck and José Ribera, known as Spagnoletto. Flemish tapestries, sculptures by Antonio Canova and a wooden model of the palace and island add to the display; a waiter made that 200-year-old model while working at the house in 1812. Look for Sala di Napoleone, where Napoleon stayed with his wife in 1797, as well as the Sala da Ballo, Sala del Trono and Sala delle Regine.
The most theatrical rooms are the six artificial grottoes on the lower floor. Their surfaces mix polished river stones, stucco shells, nymphs, mermaids and dolphins in a setting that feels designed for King Neptune. At the centre, a reclining nude Venus was once considered scandalous.
Outside, the baroque spectacle continues in a garden designed by Angelo Crivelli and regarded as Italy's finest of its kind. Boats brought enough earth from the mainland to cover the jagged rock in 10 sloping terraces, followed by marble from Baveno and stone from Viggiù. Later cargoes carried Spanish lemon trees, lilies and lotus flowers up the rising levels. Statues of Agriculture and Arts, cherubs and Borromeo unicorns crown Carlo Fontana's shell-covered water theatre. The garden projects the family's confidence and power, even as that grandeur sits oddly beside its motto of humility. The Borromeos supplied Milan with two cardinals, and Pope Paul V canonised one of them in 1610.
On the lake shore, the garden at Villa Taranto is the work of Scottish Captain Neil McEacharn. His labour of love has become a sensory garden with 20,000 plant species. Admission is adult/child €13/7.
The largest of the Borromean Islands measures 7.8 hectares, and every part of it is devoted to a botanic garden that ranks among Italy's oldest. Its mild microclimate supports wisteria, rare subtropical plants, exotic flowers and unusual trees. The oldest resident is an enormous Kashmir cypress that is more than 200 years old.
The island is occupied by the Palazzo Madre and the gardens around it. The palace dates from the 16th- to 18th-century and admission is adult/child €18/10.50. Antique furnishings and elaborate decorations fill the rooms, where mannequins dressed as servants create an intentionally eerie atmosphere. Highlights include the Borromeo countess's doll collection, a neoclassical puppet theatre designed by a Milan La Scala scenographer and a so-called horror theatre populated by devilish marionettes.
The smallest inhabited island has a permanent population of around 50 and still feels like a fishing village. Its modest sights include an 11th-century apse and a 16th-century fresco in the charming Chiesa di San Vittore. Most visitors come for lunch: restaurants gather around the boat landing and serve fresh fish from the lake. At the southern tip, Il Verbano combines a waterside restaurant with rooms for an overnight stay. Its kitchen is led by two-Michelin-star chef Marco Sacco, and a meal costs €45-85. Casabella is another excellent waterside choice, serving an elegant take on Italian classics for €45-70.
The islands have welcomed distinguished guests for centuries. Emperor Leopold II of Habsburg-Lorraine visited in 1791, while Charles and Diana came in 1984. Napoleon Bonaparte spent two days here in 1797, long enough for the staff to complain about the smell of his rooms. Writers including Stendhal and Ernest Hemingway also celebrated the islands' poetic beauty.